Kids Are Smarter Than Us, and Other Facts on Social Media Bans

(SET BOLD) Is this OK? (END BOLD)

Well, it's tricky. I can really see both sides, she said through gritted teeth. Most reasonable people want to protect kids from the darker elements of the internet, but the question is whether that task should fall to parents or the law. It's hard to miss the fact that this bill is akin to co-parenting with the government. That's a phrase you may have heard before -- when it is convenient for the folks using it. Ahem.

(SET BOLD) Will this law be challenged in court? (END BOLD)

Undoubtedly. Free-speech groups have condemned the bill as going too far. Like other states that have tried to limit youth social media use, Florida expects a legal challenge from a trade association of digital companies including Meta, TikTok and X. That's like the Avengers, but wan and dehydrated.

(SET BOLD) Why won't this work in a practical sense? (END BOLD)

This is simple. Children are born knowing more about electronics than their parents. Each new model of humans is released into this world with a working knowledge of processes and products that haven't been invented yet. This is why you can hand a toddler an iPad, turn your back for 10 seconds, and they've reprogrammed the thermostat.

What I'm saying is: By the time the kinks of this legislation get worked out, kids will have invented an app that not one adult has heard of. They will disseminate news of the app via a series of secret hand signals and constellations of color-coded acne stickers in school hallways on Guy Fawkes Day.

(SET BOLD) Is social media bad? (END BOLD)

Oh, yes. Did you know that before the dawn of social media, you could break up with someone and never see them or their new partner again unless you ran into them in a slow-motion movie scene outside a closing subway door? Now, unless you move off-grid to a survivalist compound, every person stays in your life forever. It's twisted, folks.

Hm? Oh, right, teens. Well, they need to know. Anyway, I can see both sides. Some experts have connected social media to mental health problems and a rise in depression and suicide. Research, though, doesn't necessarily support a clean cause and effect; some professionals point to societal issues that don't exist in an online vacuum.

For their part, teens testified about the good bits of social, like talking to friends, learning, running businesses. They have elegantly conveyed their points because, to reiterate, kids are smarter than us. Got it? Good. Now, can one of them come help me take a screen grab of a video?

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Stephanie Hayes is a columnist at the Tampa Bay Times in Florida. Follow her at @stephhayes on Twitter or @stephrhayes on Instagram.

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