As parents of teens and twenty-somethings, we know all too well the toxic role social media platforms play in young people’s lives.
In Colorado, we have seen the problem grow, with kids using these platforms to easily purchase drugs and guns or get lured into situations for sexual exploitation. Far too many across our state have fallen victim to fentanyl-laced pills they bought through social media.
This week we introduced Senate Bill 158, which would require social media companies to make their platforms safer for children and teens. Kids and parents could control how they want to use a social media platform, instead of the platform controlling them.
Under this bill, companies would have to verify the age of users. For those under 18 years old (and their parents), companies must provide the opportunity to opt-out from dangerous features, along with other safeguards and warnings. Social media companies also would have to provide data to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office on how the platforms are being used to sexually exploit kids, and to traffick drugs and firearms in violation of state and federal law.
Parents of teens as young as 13 years old report the easy access kids have to guns and drugs, so much so that it’s hard to go into any Colorado high school without seeing students vaping THC concentrates. All a teen needs to do to buy a firearm on social media is to reply to a post that states M.O.M. No, these social media users are not honoring their mothers. M.O.M. means “metal on the market,” a code that signals to other users that a gun is available for illegal purchase.
Social media platforms also make it dangerously easy for predatory adults to target Colorado children and teens for sexual exploitation, from coercing kids into providing sexually explicit photos to recruiting them for sex trafficking rings.
If you think parents need to “just do better” at monitoring their kids on social media, think again. Today’s platforms make it harder and harder for parents to know what activities their kids are engaging in online. Yet many of the features also make it way too easy for those who want to harm kids, and to have easy access to them. This situation must change. Parents and kids need a fighting chance.
Our federal government has done little to protect children and teens from the drugs, illegal guns, and sexual exploitation rampant on social media platforms. Last year’s report from the Colorado Attorney General’s office detailed the ready availability of fentanyl and other illicit substances on social media platforms.
Colorado’s youth violence prevention groups have found that ghost guns and other firearms are routinely purchased by teens through social media. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children handles millions of reports of child sexual exploitation and trafficking via social media every year.
At last week’s Judicial Committee hearings, U.S. Senators from both parties described Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) as the premier sex-trafficking site in the country. Despite bipartisan support and the introduction of many worthy bills, our Congress has not taken action.
Without laws forcing them to protect our kids, social media companies will continue to fall short. Their platforms wreak havoc on our children’s mental health and, even worse, have led to suicide. Congressional hearings have repeatedly taken social media CEOs to task, and whistleblowers have revealed how these companies blatantly ignore their own data about the harm they are causing.
And yet, over and over again, the companies choose to rake in billions in profits rather than take common-sense steps to save our kids. The idea that for-profit technology companies can police themselves has proven to be disastrous.
The European Union has shown us that sensible regulation can become a reality. The EU’s Digital Service Act mandates that social media companies conduct age verification and provide a multitude of safeguards to children and teens on their platforms. In the absence of federal legislation, it is up to the states to create these protections for our kids. We must step in to stop the harm.
The leadership of Attorney General Phil Weiser, Blue Rising, and other organizations has exposed the glaring irresponsibility of social media companies and the harm they are causing our kids. This bill makes Colorado a leader on the path to online safety. Too much is at stake. The time to act is now. Our children are depending on us.
Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver, and Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Adams/Arapahoe, are the lead sponsors of Senate Bill 158. They are parents who have seen first-hand the devastating impact of social media on our youth.
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