02-04-2025
North Carolina lawmakers discuss bill banning social media for kids under 14
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina lawmakers discussed House Bill 301 Tuesday, which would ban social media accounts for kids under the age of 14 and require parent or guardian consent for 14 and 15-year-olds.
'Predators have access to our kids at unprecedented levels at this time, more than ever in our history,' said state Rep. Jeff Zenger, a sponsor of the bill. 'One of their number one tools is social media.
'As a parent who has fought the battle of screen time with four kids who are now in their 20s, it is a raging battle,' Zenger said. 'The idea would be to put something up that would be a backstop for parents so that they can help regulate this and help kind of stand with this battle.'
Another argument for the bill is reducing potential for mental health issues that supporters say comes with social media use among kids.
Five other states, including Florida and Texas, already have some type of restrictions on social media usage for teens.
Asked about the bill, Raleigh parent Alicia Wenzel said, 'I do know that it does need to be filtered a little more for kids. My daughter's is filtered and she still sees things she's not supposed to see.'
At Tuesday's meeting, Reighlah Collins with the ACLU of North Carolina signed up to speak.
'While protecting children online is imperative, this bill would undermine child safety and impose likely unconstitutional restrictions on young people's ability to engage online,' she said.
Some recent changes were made to the bill.
'We were talking with the Retail Association,' Zenger said. 'They came to us about online commerce, email, educational videos and all these kinds of things. If you look, we really narrow down the scope as to what that would be. Gaming was also an issue, so we put some parameters in there for that.'
The bill was referred to the commerce and economic development committee next for discussion.
CBS 17's Mary Smith is an Investigative Reporter focused on Digging Deeper and Getting Answers. If you have a story that needs investigating, send an email to Investigates@
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