Any parent will tell you that separating kids from their cell phones can be a herculean task.
This seems to become increasingly true as children are exposed to more social media and other technology platforms.
But parents were speechless after Mark Zuckerberg made this incredible move.
Mark Zukerberg plans to defend underage use of social media in the near future
Many children and teenagers are getting cellphones at increasingly young ages, exposing them to everything on the internet.
Social media in particular consumes the lives of many young westerners.
Many parents are growing tired of the inundation of technology into their kids’ lives and are looking at the government for help.
Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are prepared to hold Big Tech CEOs accountable, or at least appear to hold them accountable, especially when it comes to underage social media use.
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not appear ready to back down.
On Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg and CEOs from other large social media platforms, including SnapChat, X, and Discord, will testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about how their platforms impact young people.
Meta has leaked some of the remarks, where Zuckerberg claims that “teens do amazing things on our services.”
“They use our apps to feel more connected, informed and entertained, as well as to express themselves, create things, and explore their interests,” Meta added. “Overall, teens tell us this is a positive part of their lives.”
However, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are not so optimistic about the impact of social media on young people.
Earlier this week, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced that he will join John Fetterman’s (D-PA) efforts to restrict youth access to social media.
“I’m proud to join Senator Fetterman in leading this bipartisan effort to protect kids in the classroom and give parents information with the transparency needed to know that their children are safe,” Cruz said. “Addictive and distracting social media apps are wreaking havoc on our kids — the very least we can do is restrict access to social media at school so taxpayer subsidies aren’t complicit in harming students.”
“Social media is a powerful tool, but spending too much time on it can significantly hurt anybody’s well-being,” Fetterman said. “It even contributed to my own mental health struggles. Cyberbullying and online harassment are real. We need to make sure that at school, our children are focused on learning, and E-rate will do just that.”
Restricting youth access to social media comes with several eye-raising side effects
Although many would agree that children should not have unfettered access to the internet, the biggest question is how the government plans on enforcing such restrictions.
Doing so would almost certainly require the establishment of a digital ID that allows the government to track children from a young age.
Many worry that doing so practically grooms children to support communist Chinese style surveillance in order to protect them from the potential harms of the internet.
Patriot Political will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
