It is not shocking to find children sitting numerous hours in front of screens, browsing endlessly through social media platforms. It feels as if there’s a new update, a new blog post, a new video, or a new trend to keep engaging our attention. However, all this scrolling pays a price and California is going a step further to protect the minor citizens.
New Law to Tackle Social Network Obsession
From 2027, it will be prohibited for social media to provide California children with content that is addictive without the permission of their parents. Governor Gavin Newsom just signed this groundbreaking law that would make California one of the first states to approach the issue directly.
This law is similar to other such changes that have been made in New York. Both have enacted laws to protect children from being drawn into the never ending abyss of social media, but California has done it in a usual way. The state is home to some of the largest technology companies in the world, and this new law may create a path forward for other states to copy.
What the Law Does
It does this by addressing the difficult subject of social media addiction to children and restricts the time when apps can notify children about new content. From midnight to 6 a.m., and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days, platforms cannot make child accounts pop with notifications without prior consent from a guardian. This is a wise decision — who needs those giddy-up messages from social media informing us we are awake at 3 AM or distracting one while in class?
Another major shift here is that social media accounts for children will be private by default. This means kids will be more safe from strangers and other risks they come across online.
Opposition and Concerns
However, not everyone seems to support the concept. Others are concerned it may cause issues for adults who might not be able to access some content if they are not able to prove their age. Others fear that, to meet the requirements of the rules, social media platforms will have to gather more personal data, which poses risks to privacy.
What Is an “Addictive Feed”?
The law also tries to give a guess as to what it is about social media that makes them so irresistible. An “addictive feed” is defined as any website or app that gives preference and displays media according to a user’s interest or history. In other words, if an app keeps recommending cat videos because once you selected the video of cats, it could fall under this new rule.
What is special in these cases is the approach to the design of these platforms. In the same way, candy is designed to be too appealing to pass up, many social networking sites are designed to be addictive. Through controlling the nature and appearance of the feeds themselves California seeks to minimize the objectification of children to screens.
The Bigger Picture: A Growing Concern
The problem of social networks and the fact that people, especially young people, became addicted to them, is discussed now more than ever before. As recently as this June, the US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, signaled for labels to be placed on social media as a way of warning children of the dangers of using the sites. It also should be noted that many of the states’ attorneys general have also supported this notion and are calling on Congress to do something to stop it as well.
State Senator Nancy Skinner, who contributed to the bill, complained that social media companies did not attempt to shield children from the bad influence of social networks. But, as she said, “When social media companies won’t do anything it becomes our duty to care for our children”.
