State Assemblyman Herb Conaway says problems with children’s use of social media are at “a crisis level.” Conaway is sponsor of a bill that would require social media companies to prove parents gave the OK for minors to sign up for social media sites. It would also ban “direct messaging between the account and any other adult user that is not linked to the account through adding on the social media platform.”
Under the bill, social media companies would be on the hook for using third-party apps to verify ages, similar to how mortgage companies use government-issued I-Ds to do that.
“As people age, they certainly should have access to more and more information. But a 13-year-old? I don’t think so. I think a lot of parents ought to be in a position to make that judgment or for their families,” said Conaway (D-Burlington).
“It’s shameful that this kind of law is needed,” said Stuart Green, a member of New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Task Force, though he says he worries what might happen to people who really need social media, like people in marginalized communities.
Joe Johnson, policy counsel with the New Jersey chapter of the ACLU, said his organization is concerned the measure would interfere with free speech. “All of those steps are unnecessarily infringing on the right to free speech and that’s the primary purpose of social media, right, to be able to go out there and express yourself,” Johnson said.
