Should kids need their parents’ permission to use social media?

“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.

What’s happening

Children in Utah will soon need their parents’ permission to access social media, thanks to a bill signed by Gov. Spencer Cox late last month. The new law will also establish a late-night curfew on social media use for minors and require companies to provide parents with complete access to their kids’ accounts.

The policies, which go into effect next year, are by far the most aggressive step taken by any state aimed at addressing mounting fears about the link between social media and an ongoing mental health crisis among young Americans.

“We’re no longer willing to let social media companies continue to harm the mental health of our youth,” Cox posted on Twitter after signing the bill. He also signed a separate piece of legislation that prohibits tech companies from using a design or feature that “causes addiction for a minor” to their product.

There is substantial evidence that American teenagers have experienced a serious decline in their mental health over the past few years. Rates of depression and suicidal thoughts increased dramatically between 2011 and 2021 — particularly among girls and children who don’t identify as heterosexual — according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February.

While the question of how much of this trend can be attributed directly to the emergence of social media is the subject of intense debate among experts, lawmakers in Utah and elsewhere are promoting unprecedented steps to curb kids’ access to platforms that they believe are causing serious harm to the nation’s children.

Why there’s debate

Supporters of Utah’s new laws say there’s enough evidence supporting the idea that social media is having a serious negative impact on the nation’s young people to vindicate taking strong measures to limit their access. They argue that giving parents oversight of their children’s online activities, rather than simply banning minors from using the platforms entirely as some have proposed, will give adults the opportunity to help guide their kids through the most dangerous elements of social media safely.

Opponents of the policy say it violates the First Amendment rights of children to freely access some of the world’s most important communication platforms. Critics add that the law’s proponents ignore the many positive benefits of social media based on beliefs about its impact that are far from proven. There is also major concern about the harm that can be caused by having parents intrude on their children’s private interactions, especially for LGBTQ kids for whom online communities may be their only source of support.

Others worry about the privacy risks of forcing all social media users to verify their age. Utah hasn’t yet determined how it will confirm that people are over 18, but some experts say it’s difficult to build a reliable age-check system without requiring people to submit sensitive information like a government ID or credit card information — a potentially dangerous prospect, given the many examples of Big Tech failing to protect users’ private data.

What’s next

Utah’s new law is widely expected to face legal challenges from teen users or social media companies who would be affected by the policy. If the courts allow it to stand, the new restrictions will go into effect next March. The legislatures in several other states — including Arkansas, Connecticut, Ohio and Louisiana — are considering similar bills.

Perspectives

SUPPORTERS

Social media should be treated like all other harmful vices

“The time has come for social media to be regulated much like tobacco or alcohol, with vigorously enforced age restrictions, warning labels for users and tough penalties for violators.” — Helen Lee Bouygues, U.S. News & World Report

Parental oversight is a step toward fixing the mistake of letting kids access social media

“Empowering parents is really the key to this approach. It was a mistake to let kids and teens onto the platforms in the first place. But we are not powerless to correct that mistake.” — Yuval Levin, New York Times

Parents have to be able to know what their children are seeing online

“It’s simply too dangerous for parents not to know what our kids are seeing on social media. Just as parents and caregivers supervise our children offline and don’t allow them to go to bars or strip clubs, we have to ensure they don’t end up in unsafe spaces on social media.” — Kara Alaimo, CNN

Any law that limits kids’ access to social media is a step in the right direction

“Social-media use should be limited by law to adults, or at the very least to people 16 years old and older.” — Christine Rosen, National Review

CRITICS

Rather than cutting off access, we need to teach kids to use social media safely

“Is all this really necessary? Is restricting the next generation really the best way to train them to be torchbearers for the future? … Instead of limiting access to social media, we need to focus on education and empowerment, providing minors and their parents with the skills and judgment they need to navigate the online world and interact with their peers in and outside of Utah.” — Caden Rosenbaum, Washington Examiner

Utah’s law is a privacy and free speech nightmare

“Not only would both bills violate the privacy of Utah social media users and require an insane amount of additional work for social media companies, but they would also open platforms up to all sorts of liability—including for violations of vague prohibitions that are open to interpretation.” — Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Reason

The harms of social media are being wildly exaggerated

“We’re deep, deep, deep into the moral panic about social media being uniquely awful, especially for kids. It’s driving all sorts of nonsense, including the false idea that we’re in a uniquely excessive period of depression, or that it’s been ‘proven’ that social media makes kids feel bad. But… that’s not what the data actually show. At all.” — Mike Masnick, Techdirt

Cutting young people off from social media would cause serious harm

“Through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, kids can access information of public importance and exchange beliefs, informing their worldviews and political development. But perhaps more importantly, social media furnishes unparalleled opportunities for self-expression. … The innovative features of social media have become critical tools of communication without which children are deprived of a unique, rich, and effective way to express themselves.” — Charles Brandt, Orange County Register

Vulnerable kids could lose the only place they are able to find support

“Some adolescents are much more vulnerable than others. These teens are often those who experience minority stress — unique stressors that occur in an adolescent’s environment as a result of their minority status. This might include LGBTQ+ teens who might be the only ‘out’ person at their school, who have to tolerate hearing gay slurs as they walk down the hallway. Or Black adolescents growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood who experience subtle (and not so subtle) racism on a daily basis. Research suggests that social media can provide a safe haven for these adolescents — a place where they can truly belong.” — Sarah M. Coyne, Salt Lake Tribune

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Photo illustration: Jack Forbes/Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images