Passage of this bill will likely allow the state to take a First Amendment legal test, similar to what California and other states are doing to limit how companies collect and use children’s data. will receive.
“We will not be intimidated or intimidated by big tech companies,” said Sen. Benjamin F. Cramer (D-Montgomery), a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill.
A growing number of states are pushing to add their own protections to the patchwork of federal policies governing data privacy in the United States. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the most significant federal action against minors, restricts companies from collecting data from young children, which is why most social media platforms restrict accounts to children 13 and older. This is the reason why we do so. But the law does not require technology companies to consider the risks their products pose to children and adolescents.
Whenever other states enact new rules forcing online companies to mitigate potential risks to children, industry groups quickly file lawsuits and They often argue that the law is unconstitutional and does little to protect children from the most serious and terrifying dangers that exist online.
One of the most vocal critics is an industry group called NetChoice, which represents major technology companies such as Amazon, Google, and Meta. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.) NetChoice has relentlessly challenged state regulation of how the tech industry interacts with children.The group testified against Maryland’s claims They argued that the bill would “chill lawful online speech” and harm the state’s small business community. Instead, the group is investing more heavily in cracking down on child abuse and education campaigns to teach children how to use the internet more safely, to protect them from the worst they face online. We support an approach that focuses on combating abuse.
“Unconstitutional laws do not protect children online or offline,” Carl Szabo, NetChoice’s vice president and general counsel, told The Post in an email.
Szabo, who is also a Maryland parent, told lawmakers he believes there are legal solutions the state could adopt instead, such as creating tougher penalties for artificial intelligence-generated child pornography and revenge porn. Told.
The group did not say whether it plans to sue the state if the bill passes.
NetChoice sued California over a 2022 law that affected Maryland’s Children’s Act, as well as Utah over a law requiring parents’ permission for teenagers to create social media accounts. Arkansas and Ohio are also suing. The group has filed challenges in Florida and Texas over laws that prohibit social media platforms from moderating certain content posted by users.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (D) filed a court brief in December defending California’s law, saying states have the power to regulate social media platforms and other tech companies. showed that.
“Our children are being exposed to dangerous content on social media platforms, which continues to negatively impact their mental health and emotional development,” Brown said in a December statement. “We must continue to take protective measures to prevent further harm and protect future generations from experiencing the same negative effects that social media is having on our youth.”
Maryland lawmakers say they won’t back down.
When Kramer explained the bill to a state Senate committee last month, he said Maryland parents have to worry about predators peeping through their children’s bedroom windows or following their children to parks and shopping malls after school. He said that no one would be silently watching.
“But the reality is that Big Tech is a pervert at the doorstep of our children,” Kramer said.
House bill sponsored by Delsu. It was passed unanimously Thursday afternoon by Sens. Jared Solomon (D-Montgomery), CT Wilson (D-Charles) and Sarah Love (D-Montgomery). The state Senate followed suit that night, unanimously approving a similar bill sponsored by Cramer, along with Sen. Katie Fry Hester (D-Howard) and Sen. Chris West (R-Baltimore County).
In addition to NetChoice, business leaders, the Entertainment Software Association, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and others say the law violates First Amendment rights, burdens small businesses, and even removes content from tech companies. has expressed concern that children may be inadvertently exposed to inappropriate content. You can ensure that only age-appropriate ads are shown on the Platform.
Dozens of people testified in favor of the bill, including students, parents, school counselors, and people who work with children. Teens and young adults may encounter scary posts while scrolling through social media, receive lewd and predatory messages from strangers, or have anxiety and depression worsened by the amount of time they spend on the web. I shared a personal story of watching a friend fall into the trap. Parents and other adults shared concerns about children spending too much time on the unregulated internet.
Howard County mother Kristin McComas reminds lawmakers of her 15-year-old daughter Grace, who was the inspiration for other online safety laws after she committed suicide after persistent cyberbullying on social media. Ta. She was sitting next to Mia and Todd Miner. Miner’s 12-year-old son, Matthew, died in 2019 after imitating a video he saw online of other children strangling themselves until they passed out. Todd Miner described performing CPR on his son while waiting for an ambulance to arrive at his home in Virginia.
In her testimony for the bill, Ariel Geismar, a George Washington University student who works with the national advocacy group Design It For Us, criticized social media posts about eating disorders that told people to starve to death. He talked about his personal experience of being addicted to it. As she tried to make sense of what she was seeing, more and more posts appeared on her platform extolling dangerous eating habits. She says companies that design products that are as addictive as possible by using notifications to get kids to open an app and scroll endlessly to get them to stay there, are making their products as addictive as possible in the lives of young people. Said to be ruining it.
“I’m scared,” she said. “They fundamentally change our brain chemistry.”
