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Tag: social media ban

  • Countries Across Europe Take Action to Ban Social Media for Minors

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    Under-16 social media bans are picking up steam across Europe.

    Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis was the latest leader to praise a ban, saying that the experts he’s spoken to have said that social media is “terribly harmful to children.”

    The Czech government is seriously considering a ban this year, according to Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlicek, who gave remarks on CNN Prima News, a Czech TV news channel.

    Earlier this week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the country’s plans to ban under-16 users from social media, calling it a measure to protect kids “from the digital wild west,” at a speech in Dubai. In his speech, Sánchez also said that Spain had joined a new alliance with five other European countries that he called the “coalition of the digitally willing.” Although the identity of those five other countries is uncertain, there are certainly more than five countries in Europe that have signaled willingness to limit the social media use of kids and teens.

    Also this week, both Greece and Turkey announced that they were edging closer to a ban.

    Last week, the lower chamber of the French parliament voted in favor of a ban targeting under-15s and the bill now makes its way to the French Senate.

    German digital minister Karsten Wildberger has said that he sees “a lot of merit” in a social media ban and considers age restriction “more than justified.” Austrian government officials said that they are considering a ban for under-14s that could come into effect before the beginning of the next school year, while the Irish minister for media said that he plans to introduce online child safety measures like a ban for under-16s “incrementally.”

    Poland is allegedly drafting a law to ban under-15s from social media, Portugal is debating a proposed ban that would include access with parental consent, the United Kingdom’s House of Lords backed a social media ban for under-16s in a vote last month, Norway is working on a similar hard limit and Denmark announced plans for a ban as early as November.

    The European Union is also weighing a ban that would impact all 27 European countries that are a part of the bloc. The Dutch government reportedly has shown support.

    What sparked this now global regulatory wave was a historic social media ban in Australia targeting under-16s. Starting mid-December, scores of Australian children and teens were banned from social media platforms TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, Kick and Twitch.

    A jumping-off point for the Australian ban was American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Anxious Generation,” which argues that the overwhelming presence of social media in the critical developmental stages of puberty has fundamentally rewired the brains of those born after 1995.

    Social media addiction among children and teens has been linked to higher feelings of loneliness, depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorders, body image issues and poor sleep quality. Many regulators are also increasingly worried about unchecked cyberbullying.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics released a report last month linking prolonged digital media use with language delays, anger issues, weaker cognition and even increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and asked tech companies and the government to put strict guardrails in place that prohibit harmful social media design features like user profiling, autoplay and algorithmic recommender systems.

    American big tech companies, which have an outsized influence on the digital world as the owners of some of the top social media platforms that are facing the fallouts of these bans, are not happy with this trend. Meta, which operates the teen-favorite social media platform Instagram, has repeatedly asked Australian regulators to rethink the ban. (On a related note, Meta recently shared plans to make its social media feeds even more addictive with LLM-enhanced recommendation systems. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “soon” there will be “an AI that understands you” and tailors your feed accordingly.)

    Following Sánchez’s speech, in which he also shared intentions to hold tech companies legally responsible for hateful and illegal content on their platforms and for algorithm manipulation, Elon Musk took to X to call the Spanish prime minister a “true fascist totalitarian,” and “a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain.”

    As countries around the world start introducing bans that hurt American tech companies, it will be interesting to see how the Trump administration reacts. Trump has repeatedly made American big tech interests central to his foreign trade policy, especially regarding Europe. Trump considers European regulation of digital platforms and tech companies “overseas extortion” against the United States, and while some of his trade decisions may have led to looser regulation in some instances, it has also pushed certain European governments further away from American tech.

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    Ece Yildirim

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  • Florida Legislature passes revised bill banning social media for kids

    Florida Legislature passes revised bill banning social media for kids

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    With one lawmaker likening social media to a “dark alley,” the Florida House on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that seeks to keep children off social-media platforms.

    The House voted 109-4 to approve the bill (HB 3), which passed the Senate on Monday. It will go to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it after vetoing an earlier version.

    House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, made cracking down on social media perhaps the highest-profile issue of this year’s legislative session. He contends that social media use harms children’s mental health and can lead to sexual predators communicating with minors.

    “This is something that I believe will save the current generation and generations to come if we’re successful,” Renner said after the bill passed.

    Rep. Tyler Sirois, a Merritt Island Republican who helped sponsor the bill, said that if social media “is the new town square, then God help us.”

    “For our children, social media is no town square,” Sirois said. “It is a dark alley.”

    The bill, in part, would prevent children under age 16 from opening social-media accounts — though it would allow parents to give consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to have accounts. Children under 14 could not open accounts.

    Tech-industry and free-speech groups have already signaled that the bill is likely to face a First Amendment court challenge.

    “Outright banning minors from social media sites does not address the potential harm they may encounter on social media sites but instead prohibits them from sharing and engaging in constitutionally protected speech,” Katie Blankenship, director of the free-speech group PEN America Florida, said in a statement this week. “We know social media sites can present significant risks to minors, but the state’s response to such risks should be tailored to minimize harm, not passing measures that violate Floridans’ constitutional rights.”

    Opponents have pointed to courts blocking similar laws passed in other states.

    “I don’t think we should spend more public dollars on lawsuits in this state where we know these bills are inherently unconstitutional,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said.

    Bill supporters, however, contend the measure targets “addictive” features of social-media platforms, not content, making it better able to withstand constitutional challenges.

    “We’re talking about products that are not only addictive, these products are deliberately designed to be addictive,” said Rep. Mike Beltran, a Riverview Republican who is an attorney. “There’s a huge difference between the two of those.”

    Rep. Michele Rayner, a St. Petersburg Democrat who has helped sponsor the bill, said she believes “we are in crisis” with social media.

    “Maybe, this may not be the bill, and we got to come back next year and the year after, but at least we are acting,” Rayner, an attorney, said. “At least we are moving the needle. At least we are having a conversation.”

    Along with Eskamani, dissenting votes were cast by Rep. Daryl Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, and Rep. Felicia Robinson, D-Miami Gardens.

    DeSantis on Friday vetoed the earlier version (HB 1) after raising concerns about constitutional issues and infringement on parental rights. But he negotiated with Renner on the plan that passed Wednesday.

    A significant change is that the revised plan would allow 14- and 15-year-olds to open accounts with parental consent. The earlier version would have prevented 14- and 15-year-olds from creating accounts without a parental-consent option.

    The bill does not name social-media platforms that would be affected. But it includes a definition of such platforms, with criteria related to such things as algorithms, “addictive features” and allowing users to view the content or activities of other users.

    The earlier version would have directed age-verification requirements for platforms. Those requirements also would have affected adults creating accounts.

    But the revamped plan does not include the requirements. As an alternative, supporters hope to ensure compliance by opening social-media platforms to lawsuits for violations of the age restrictions. That would include lawsuits filed by the state attorney general and lawsuits filed on behalf of minors.

    “We’re putting the onus here on the companies,” Sirois said.

    Like the earlier version, the bill would require age verification to try to prevent minors under age 18 from having access to online pornographic sites.

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    Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida

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