On March 23, 2023 Utah governor Spencer Cox signed two new laws that ban the use of social media apps for people under the age of 18. The law enforces that minors need parent permission to use these apps and services. The state of Iowa is now considering imposing this law. The committee voted 14-9 sending it to the full House for consideration. Other states like Arkansas or Missouri are considering this law, but is this going to benefit or hurt minors? There are pros and cons on both sides of the argument.
To start with, there are some pros. The most important is protection of minors. Rep. John Will stated: “What we want to do is make sure that children are being protected from online bullying and from all of the other associated problems that go along with social media platforms.” Technologies can cause social problems and decrease productivity levels.
There are some cons too. Social media help teenagers get informed about recent news and many teenagers use it as a way to communicate with their friends and family. Some experts say that it will be easy for people to fake their parents' consent or their age and it will not be effective.
In my opinion Iowa shouldn’t ban social media for minors. It is the parents responsibility to decide whether they give their kid access to these apps or not and make sure they use it in a good way. I believe that banning them will lead to kids faking their parents' permission and their age and will not turn out to be as effective as they want to.
Do you think Iowa should impose this law? Why?
Do you think the law would turn out to be effective?
Sources:
https://secureteen.com/social-media/pros-and-cons-of-social-media
Replies
I agree that many people would protest and it would not turn out to be effective.
Personally, I don't think that they should ban Social Media. It would be taking a lot of jobs away from people, and we should be able to know when to stop. What is considered Social Media? Snapchat is Social Media, but is Gas? We all know when Gas was popular. What about Stay Sober? Many people use this to track there sobriety and they can also go onto a community of people to ask for advice/give advice.
I don't think that this bill should be passed with a full ban on social media. I don't think that this bill should go through at all, but if it does, it should be people over eighteen or with parent/guardian's consent. I think that if Iowa were to impose this law then a lot of families would be upset. I think that this whole ordeal is a case of government overreach.
I agree that minors should be allowed to use social media with parents consent instead of having to pass a law.
I personally don’t see the point in Iowa banning social media apps I agree with you it should be the parent's choice if they feel the need to monitor their child's social media usage and what they decide to download on their phones. I think that if the law is passed it will be effective and it will help children on social media be more careful but this law is not something that the states should have a right to decide.
I personally believe that they should not ban social media because I think that it has been here for so long that we are use to it by now. I also think that people can be a littel bit of a snowflake when it comes to social media as well and they just need to let it go.
I agree with you, I don't think people would respond good to banning social media.
I think that they should not ban social media. I think that it's been around long enough for people to learn self controll and to not waste their whole life on it. Some people that make their money that way would loose tons of money because it is kids who mainly watch social media.
I don't know what I think about banning social media. I think it could be kind of good for kids to not have social media but also we use it for so many different things and it can be helpful in a lot of different ways. I think the law could turn out to be effective or it could just turn out to be a mess.
I personally think that the law could turn out with many fake profiles on different apps.
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