Utah Passes New Social Media Laws
On Thursday, March 23, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed two new social media regulation bills. With this, Utah has become the first state to actually enact laws that limits children’s accessibility to social media. The first of the bills discusses that there will have to be parental consent before children are able to sign up for social media sites. These platforms for example could be tik tok and Instagram. Children in Utah have now lost the ability to sign up for these platforms freely and now will have to get consent from parents in order for the usage of the platforms. Secondly, the new bills that Cox have signed will also prohibit children who are under the age of 18 to access social media platforms between the times of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. until they reach the age of 18. These bills are both addressing the amount of time children use social media as well as trying to be more cautious with tech companies luring children in hence the parental consent portion of the bills. How these bills will be regulated is still unclear, but it seems to me that these bills will force social media platforms to make changes to their specified apps in order to stay within these new laws. Utah becoming the first state to create laws within social media is the first step in a shift that may occur across the United States.
These new laws set in place was based on the main purpose and relationship between social media and children’s mental health. The topic at hand is a well-studied and looked after area as social media has been a major factor in the eyes of professionals and parents for the poor mental health. Cox stated that these new regulations “significantly changes the relationship of our children with these very destructive social media apps” (Spencer Cox). Cox is confident that these new regulations will help the troubles of children with mental health. Social media platforms have the ability to be a dangerous place for not just children but everyone. Tech companies have battled with legislation regarding these dangerous scenarios as social media platforms have always been a place full of misinformation and hate speech which leads to these poor mental health cases reoccurring throughout Americans.
Utah is just the first of many states that will begin this transition of attempting to further protect children from the dangers of social media. But, with these news laws taking place, social media will become a less open space. The one thing social media has always flourished on was the ability to have a free space to share content, thoughts, and ideas. These new laws are taking little pieces of this away. Yes, these laws are meant to protect children from social media, but I believe tech giants will overcome these laws. They will continue to find loopholes in the system in attempt to continue their large revenue incomes from advertising to its users. I believe the change needed to help societies struggles with social media and mental health must come from within these tech companies rather than laws. Yes, these laws will help protect children from the dangers, but it is the tech companies managing, changing, and regulating their platforms themselves that will make the biggest impact.
