In California, a law project could allow the parents of children who have become addicted to social networks to attack the platforms in question in court. If this bill succeeds the social networks concerned will then have to deactivate the accounts of the Californian children.
Addiction to social networks in the sights of justice
The bill was passed Monday, May 23, 2022, by the state assembly. It will now go to the state senate. This text is based on the framework of California’s consumer privacy law, which prohibits companies from sell the personal information of young people under 16. This time, the objective is to impose a “obligation not to make users under 18 addicted”. If the law is passed, parents will be able to claim damages of up to $25,000 from social media.
Climate of uncertainty among Twitter employees
The law will only apply to companies that have made a revenue over $100 million over the past year. Streaming services and apps that only send text messages are not affected. The text is based on the revelations made within the framework of the “Facebook Files”. A few months ago, internal documents leaked, the opportunity to discover that Mark Zuckerberg’s company had conducted studies to understand the impact of social networks on the mental health of young people.
California wants to preserve the mental health of children
These documents show that Meta employees are concerned about the impact that social networks have on young people and that it can harm their mental health. Frances Haugen, data specialist at Facebook, is at the origin of these revelations. She said the highest addiction rate on Meta platforms involved 14-year-olds. Advocates of the bill, such as the University of San Diego’s Children’s Advocacy Institute, say parental controls cannot be the answer to addiction.
Indeed, a recent study by Common Sense, a nonprofit research group, showed that screen time among teens and tweens had increased by 17% in the last two years. The study also indicates that the use of social networks by children aged 8 to 12 has increased from 31% in 2019 to 38% in 2021. They specify that the majority of adolescents use social networks. The bill defines addiction as “the act of a person experiencing physical, mental or emotional harm, wanting to quit but not being able to do so due to the nature of the platform”.