Lawmakers rail against tech platforms’ alleged danger to kids, pledge new bills

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Lawmakers are eager to crack down on Big Tech for its platforms’ alleged harm to kids as a growing number of senators craft proposals to change the way tech companies’ digital products interact with children.

Teenage suicide, addiction and sexual abuse are among the digital-fueled dangers that senators pinned on Big Tech during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.

A greater percentage of teenage girls feel sad or hopeless than at any time in the past decade, according to new data published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 57% of teen girls surveyed by the CDC felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, nearly double the percentage of boys who felt similarly, according to the survey.

“We have pretty divergent political opinions, except here,” Mr. Graham said. “We have to do something, and the sooner the better. We’re going to approach this from consumer protection, we’re going to look at a digital regulatory commission that would have power to shut these sites down if they’re not doing best business practices to protect children from sexual exploitation online.”

The Kids Online Safety Act advanced through the Senate Commerce Committee last year but failed to become law, and its bipartisan authors want to see it advance. The Making Age-Verification Technology Uniform, Robust and Effective Act would force social media platforms to verify users are age 16 or older, including by requiring platforms to collect a “scan, image or upload of government-issued identification of the individual,” according to the draft legislation.

“Yes, certainly, for some teens social media might act as one stressor that contributes to a larger system of risk for mental illness,” Ms. Nesi wrote on her Techno Sapiens blog on Substack. “But does using social media, on its own, cause mental illness in teens? No.”

 

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