The role of government and the responsibility of parents

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 12th of March, 2024. This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad to have you along today. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up on The World and Everything in It: age limits for social media.

Over the past few weeks, Florida lawmakers have been trying to craft a bill that would protect kids from the harms of social media and protect the law itself from legal challenge. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed the first version of the bill, and this week, he’s considering the revised version.

EICHER: If the new bill becomes law, it would make Florida the fifth state to pass a law limiting social media access for kids. Will it be the first to succeed against a court challenge?

WORLD Radio’s Mary Muncy has the story.

MARY MUNCY: 15-year-old Alivia Hendricks and her dad are sitting at their kitchen table in Florida talking about her screen time.

ALIVIA HENDRICKS: Sometimes I'm like, “Oh, I'll just like watch YouTube for like five minutes,” and then I end up just like sitting there. It's like 11 o'clock at night and I'm like, “Oh, I still have homework.”

Alivia is the fifth of seven kids and her dad, Tommy Hendricks, says he’s had a hard time keeping his kids away from bad things on the internet.

TOMMY HENDRICKS: We did the phone and the restrictions they could get around it. I mean, hands down every kid who wanted to Google a couple of videos on how to break your phone and get to it. So as a parent who's concerned, I would say I take all the help I can get.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign a bill that would protect kids under 16 from the so-called addictive features of some social media apps. The original bill made no expectations for parental permission, but this new bill allows parents to give their 14 and 15-year-old kids permission to access the apps.

So Alivia’s dad would have to decide whether he wants to go through a verification process so his daughter doesn’t lose access to the two social media apps on her phone, YouTube and BeReal.

DeSantis says he vetoed the original bill because it took away parents’ power to parent, and minors have First Amendment rights too.

RON DESANTIS: I think you gotta strike that proper balance when you’re looking at these things between policy that is helping parents get to where they want to go versus policy that is outright overruling parents.

The federal government already protects kids under 13 from sites targeting them that would use their data. That’s why most social media companies ask users to verify they are over 13—it shows the site is not directed towards them. But DeSantis says that law hasn’t been enforced, so Florida’s law would do that.

PATTI SULLIVAN: It focuses on the features that pull children in.

Patti Sullivan is a Florida parent and the State Director for Parental Rights Florida.

SULLIVAN: What it does do is it sets an age verification and requirements for social media platforms to protect children under 16.

The bill requires sites with certain “addictive features” like infinite scrolling or push notifications to choose a “reasonable” way to verify age or face fines up to $50,000 per violation.

It also requires any site that contains a significant amount of content that’s harmful to minors—like pornography—to use standard or anonymous age verification practices, things like uploading a driver’s license to a third party.

Lawmakers say parents shouldn’t be allowed to give their children access to addictive features and harmful content just like they can’t give their children access to other harmful things.

SULLIVAN: We don't allow parents to abuse their children. We do not allow parents to allow their children to get drunk. We do not allow parents to allow their children to do drugs. So there are certain areas that are hard lines.

Sullivan compares social media to big tobacco or vaping. Both products were marketed to minors before the harms were fully known, and then companies had to backtrack.

To that end, 41 states filed a lawsuit last year against Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta. They said the company knowingly used harmful, addictive features.

Some healthcare professionals say there can be harms connected with social media use like depression and anxiety. But other experts say social media doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, and that raises questions over whether there should be a blanket ban.

BOB CORN-REVERE: My name is Bob Corn-Revere, I'm Chief Counsel at FIRE: the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Corn-Revere says whether Florida’s law will stand is not so much a question of whether certain features harm kids or whether they should be allowed to view adult content. It’s a question of whether that harm is great enough to limit everyone’s First Amendment rights, and that is a high standard.

When companies verify age, they have to verify everyone’s age, not just minors. And Corn-Revere says that puts a barrier between the public and a means of communication, even if it’s only meant to target certain features.

CORN-REVERE: When legislatures enact laws that impose restrictions, they create these one size fits, fits all scenarios. They impose blanket solutions, whether it's age verification or something else that affects everybody.

Previous bills limiting social media for minors in Utah, California, Ohio, and Arkansas have all been blocked by their state courts for free speech concerns. And so far, only California has appealed its case.

Florida lawmakers say their bill has a better chance at surviving legal challenges because it focuses on the addictive features and not the content of speech, but that remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Florida parents like Caroline Ross have to consider where the power of government ends and the responsibility of parents takes priority.

ROSS: It can help parents parent, and it can help you know them be able to have a little bit more of a breather knowing that their kid doesn't have access to it. But when your kid does have access to it at 16, then what's happening? I think it's deeper than social media. I think it's conversations.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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