A student receives a notification from their phone. Casually, as if it were second nature, they pick it up and check it. This has become a normal part of daily life for the modern Texan teenager. However, this experience could soon be taken away.
Recently, there have been a series of bills covering people under 18 on social media, and it has already been approved by the house. House Bill 186 would prohibit people under the age of 18 to have a social media account, and have these popular websites and apps, such as TikTok or Instagram to require age verification. House Bill 499 would require a warning label about the association between a child on social media and their mental health. House Bill 4456 mandates that social media platforms verify the age of account holders. The bill defines “account holder” and “child” (under 18 years of age), requiring platforms to verify the age of users before they can access the platform. House Bill 4338 would require social media platforms to create and maintain third-party safety software to manage online interactions for children. All of these bills are part of a larger effort that Texas and other states have undertaken over the past few years to mitigate the harmful effects of social media. Student Support Counselor Stephanie Clayton gave her thoughts on the matter.
“It’s more about learning how to use social media in a healthy way,” Clayton said. “Most of us could probably use better boundaries with our screen time.”
Two years ago, Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 18, known as the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, or the SCOPE Act, into law. The SCOPE Act requires covered digital service providers to provide minors with certain data protections, prevent them from accessing harmful content, and give parents tools to manage their child’s use of the service. It also required school districts to obtain parental consent for most software and social media applications used in the classroom and to look for alternatives to the internet for instruction.
Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), who authored the bill, said it addresses concerns about children being exposed to harmful content or dangerous behaviors on social media. Having stricter age verification can help protect child safety and privacy online.
“I believe that this is the modern-day cigarette,” Patterson said in a statement with the Texas Tribune. “I think that we are going to wake up at some point in this country and realize what we have done to an entire generation of kids that are on this highly-addictive product called social media.”
Many students make content or are active online, such as freshman Riley McNary, who has a Youtube channel where she posts animations.
“I feel like there are a lot of people underaged online” McNary said. “They probably shouldn’t know about some stuff in general or like a lot of criminals, like people on social media talk about crimes, and murder stuff. Like they talk about a lot of things that are probably not safe for little kids’ ears.”
Others, like freshman Ava Hernandez, who stopped making content a long time ago, explains her experience with being online.
“When you see that kind of negativity all the time, it’s difficult not to take it all in” Hernandez said. “If it’s aimed at you, it can really damage your confidence. If it’s aimed at other people, you can start to become numb to it – maybe it doesn’t shock you anymore, even when it should.”
