Texas Bill Would Ban Social Media for Minors.

[Cpvr]

Texas may soon pass into law one of the most restrictive set of social media rules for minors, including making it illegal for those under 18 to be on social media.

House Bill 186 would not only prohibit minors from creating new social media accounts on services such as TikTok, Instagram and X, but it would require age verification for everyone else creating a new account. Under the law, parents could request a minor's social media account be deleted and the platform would be required to remove it within 10 days or face fines and lawsuits. Lawmakers who support the bill say it will counter the mental health harm that social media poses to teens.

The bill has passed the Texas House of Representatives and still needs to pass the state senate and get a signature from governor Greg Abbott. A similar law passed in Utah last year was blocked months later by a federal judge. A legal battle over social media restrictions in Florida is also ongoing.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-...-media-for-minors-heres-what-that-would-mean/

 

[Axel Slingerland]

That would work about as well as a car with no engine... In Eureka, a 16 year old boy sent a porn video and some photos of them gettin' busy to his girlfriend, a 16 year old girl. She got mad and told her Father about it, and he called the Police. Then the boy got mad and sent the video to every kid in his class, and some of them sent the video to other kids. Eventually, the video was forwarded to just about everyone at the school.

After a lengthy investigation, they found out that a lot of the kids were sending porn videos and photos back and forth. At Eureka High School there were 1,200 kids. The Chief of Police, the Mayor and the Superintendent of Schools met and talked it over. I have no idea how that came to this conclusion, but they estimated that at least half of the kids had photos of or videos someone else from the school in the buff, many of the videos they saw the kids were also gettin' busy.

If just 10% of the kids had some form of "friends porn" on their phones, that would be 120 kids. How could they stop that? Specially if it actually was half of them?

They couldn't and they knew it. A year went by and they still had no answer. So I guess that was their answer. Do Nothing.

My point is, if you tell a very large group of teenagers not to do something... What do you think they'll do?

 

[Sheryl]

There needs to be some kind of restrictions. NC is working on a bill similar to that.

If a young person posts sexually explicit pictures of another young person, I think it should be punished by jail time. Even a weekend in jail would suffice. If that happened a few times, they would think twice before doing it.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

It's illegal in California already and has been for years. But the Mayor, Chief of Police, the Superintendent of Schools and probably the City Council all came to the same conclusion. They can't arrest everyone at the school. If it actually was half of them, that would be over 500 kids.

Have you ever seen a TV show called Speeders?

In an episode focusing on Eureka, Officer Greg Hill (the traffic cop in that 12 second video) was asked why the Police don't bust all the pot smokers in Humboldt County. He smiled and said "If we did that, where would we put criminals?"

Pretty much the same thing could be said for teenagers trading "Busy Pics." The County Juvenile Hall has a maximum capacity of 30 inmates, and it's typically a full house. The Humboldt County Jail has a maximum capacity of 417 inmates, both male and female, with the average occupancy of about 400.

Don't get me wrong, I not saying they should do nothing, just wondering where would they put 500 teenagers? They're too young to pack them off to San Quentin...

 

[Susannah]

Punish the kids for things like sending pictures. I wouldn’t be opposed to a weekend in lockup. But I don’t believe it is possible to prevent registration of minors.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I wouldn’t be opposed to a weekend in lockup.

I wouldn't either. The question is how and where? In 2016 California passed a law on Cyber Sexual Bullying, which allows School Districts to Suspend or Expel students for that, but under that law only a few of the Eureka kids would be effected. Only the girl's boyfriend who initially sent the video to his friends, and those that forwarded it would be considered as violating that law.

However, that question of how and where remains unanswered. Then of course, what about when it's not cyber bullying? Some people say it's form of free speech, and denying it is a violation of the right to free speech. Other people bring up privacy concerns. That adds the question of why, to how and where. Everything they came up with led to other related and potentially unanswered questions.

My point in saying all that was that this Texas law would have some of the same problems. Is social media considered under the free speech and privacy laws? Do minors even have those rights? I could see that going all the way to the Supreme Court for a decision...