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 this is the parents job and they should be the ones being in charge of what their kids do.
I don't think that this law should be passed. I also don't think that it is gonna be very effective since it is probably going to be very hard to really proof that the parents gave their permission. I feel like that the parents should be the ones who are controlling what their children are using.
I don't think that Iowa should. I understand that their trying to protect kids from online bullying and help their parents with knowing what their being exposed to online, but I feel like their are probably better ways to do this.
I agree that they could find out a better way to protect kids instead of banning social media for all minors.
I feel like this bill should not be passed. There really is no way to actually enforce this law without our government invading teens' privacy, which is what they are trying to "protect" us from. I understand to an extent where they are coming from, but I feel like the government is just trying to silence kids' opinions and stop us from expressing ourselves freely. I think this is a violation of the first amendment.
I agree with you, this law should not be passed and the amount of kids that use social media is huge.
I think the law should not be passed because sometimes social media is all we have to comunicate with the world. like my life has been a good example, i had walking pneumonia and i couldnt go to school, go outside, or even hangout with friends. All i has was social media. social media is an important part of our lifes. It would be effctive for many but also harm others.
I think that the law should be imposed. Imposing the law wouldn't make me happy, but I think that social media has more negative affect than positive. Social media causes people of all ages to waste too much time, or worry too much about likes or views.
I personally disagree. I agree that social media has some negative effects but if kids use social media how they are supposed to there shouldn't be any problem.
I think that this law should not be passed because it just make more people upset. This law would probably not be effective at all considering people would just fake parents permission or make fake ages.
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
of 8 Next