Virginia House subcommittee kills bill that would have required parental consent for kids to use “addictive” social media feeds
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- A house subcommittee has effectively killed a bill from Delegate Josh Thomas (D-Prince William) that would have required social media platforms to get parental consent before allowing kids under 18 to use so-called “addictive feeds" on their platforms. “Now with the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) and algorithms, we are getting much more content exposed to our children that they did not sign up for,” Thomas told 8News. Thomas’s bill defined “addictive feeds” as “a website, online service, or online or mobile application, or a portion thereof, in which multiple pieces of media generated or shared by users of a website, online service, or online or mobile application, either concurrently or sequentially, are recommended, selected, or prioritized for display to a user based, in whole or in part, on information associated with the user or the user's device.” Thomas told 8News that these types of feeds are designed to keep users online as long as possible and they use algorithms to determine what a user sees, which could lead children to be exposed to inappropriate content. “My son is the son and the grandson of immigrants and just as an example, there is an immense amount of anti-immigrant sentiment that is on these social media apps. He’s also bi-racial, so there is an immense of racist material on these apps and I want to protect him from that,” Thomas explained. However, tech giant Meta, the parent company of popular social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, testified against the bill saying that their algorithms actually improve online safety for kids by filtering out inappropriate content. Additionally, Meta said requiring parental consent for every app and feed will create an “unreasonable burden on parents.” “We think it’s going to be a lot of work for parents to give that personal information to every single app their kids are using and consent to each feed that they want their kid to be able to use or not use on an app,” Jennifer Hanley, Meta’s North American Head of Public Safety told 8News. Another bill to require social media sites to get parental onset before allowing minors under 18 on their platforms at all, regardless of the type of feeds they use, also failed to pass out of a House subcommittee earlier this month.
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- A house subcommittee has effectively killed a bill from Delegate Josh Thomas (D-Prince William) that would have required social media platforms to get parental consent before allowing kids under 18 to use so-called “addictive feeds" on their platforms.
“Now with the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) and algorithms, we are getting much more content exposed to our children that they did not sign up for,” Thomas told 8News.
Thomas’s bill defined “addictive feeds” as “a website, online service, or online or mobile application, or a portion thereof, in which multiple pieces of media generated or shared by users of a website, online service, or online or mobile application, either concurrently or sequentially, are recommended, selected, or prioritized for display to a user based, in whole or in part, on information associated with the user or the user's device.”
Thomas told 8News that these types of feeds are designed to keep users online as long as possible and they use algorithms to determine what a user sees, which could lead children to be exposed to inappropriate content.
“My son is the son and the grandson of immigrants and just as an example, there is an immense amount of anti-immigrant sentiment that is on these social media apps. He’s also bi-racial, so there is an immense of racist material on these apps and I want to protect him from that,” Thomas explained.
However, tech giant Meta, the parent company of popular social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, testified against the bill saying that their algorithms actually improve online safety for kids by filtering out inappropriate content.
Additionally, Meta said requiring parental consent for every app and feed will create an “unreasonable burden on parents.”
“We think it’s going to be a lot of work for parents to give that personal information to every single app their kids are using and consent to each feed that they want their kid to be able to use or not use on an app,” Jennifer Hanley, Meta’s North American Head of Public Safety told 8News.
Another bill to require social media sites to get parental onset before allowing minors under 18 on their platforms at all, regardless of the type of feeds they use, also failed to pass out of a House subcommittee earlier this month.
