SC House passes social media consent bill

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – The South Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill that could affect children’s social media use.

Lawmakers said this bill would protect children’s safety and hold large social media corporations accountable for making billions of dollars while putting children at risk.

Representative Travis Moore (R – District 33) said this bill will require companies to verify users’ ages and ban people under the age of 18 from social media sites unless they have parental approval.

“We have minimum safety standards for cribs and car seats and other things. Well, this is going to put a duty of care on these tech platforms to have to design their platforms with the best interest of the child and to protect children,” said Moore.

This bill would also block adults from messaging children unless they are already connected.
Despite the bill passing last session one hundred thirteen to one, today there was support and opposition from this bill on both sides.

House Minority Leader Representative Todd Rutherford (D- District 74) voted to pass the bill last time, but now he voted against it.

“We looked at it and said, okay, well, protecting children is important. How do we do that? and making sure that there’s age verification as people go on the social media sites, if we can do that successfully, then I’m all for it. What I’ve come to learn is that all it is, is a data grab by some of these companies.”

Rutherford said he supports the safety of children, but believes the bill would lead to more control in state government.

“To control my kids access to not only social media, but to any app I want to. The government needs to be very limited in scope and act like a scalpel, not like a hammer.”

Representative Moore said the bill states social media companies will not be allowed to collect unnecessary personal information from anyone under 18, that the decision remains with the child’s parents.

“What it really does is empower parents to be able to protect their children from the dangers of online use,” Moore said.

During yesterday’s second reading, Representative Brandon Guffey (R – District 44) gave testimony to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington D.C. Guffey’s son took his life after he was blackmailed by an adult on social media. Guffey said we need to protect children from social media.

The bill will now head over to the senate.