The daily Targum

There’s no question that social media has changed the way the world works. One’s reach and community are no longer limited to just a neighborhood, city, or state; it is now global.

With this reach, there are concerns about the impact of social media on young people. Worried about cyberbullying, exposure to explicit content and internet addiction have prompted major US institutions to take action.

The U.S. Senate approved the bipartisan proposal in July Children’s Online Safety Act (KOSA). This account would give social media companies a duty of care, meaning that these organizations must take reasonable steps to ensure that no harm comes to minors.

Additionally, the bill would allow minors to opt out of algorithmic recommendations on social media and block access to harmful content such as bullying, substance abuse and sexual exploitation.

While KOSA the House of Representativessome social media companies have tried to get ahead of the law. On September 17, Instagram announced that the accounts of users under the age of 18 will be converted into teen accounts.

This would make their accounts private, give parents more control over their teens’ accounts, and limit access to sensitive content such as violence and cosmetics advertising. While these efforts are commendable in creating a safer internet for minors, these policies have some deep problems.

Both policies would likely hinder free expression on the Internet. If KOSA and Instagram require minors to be treated differently than adults on these platforms, there must be a way to distinguish between the two groups. The most likely scenario would be a requirement to provide identification to verify age. This could be effective deanonymize the internet and as a result create a chilling effect where people can avoid expressing their thoughts on these social media platforms.

Having an anonymous internet is useful. Social media is used as a vehicle to achieve this challenge authoritarian regimes and for marginalized groups to connect with each other without fear of repression. Deanonymizing the internet could potentially block the benefits of social media.

Considering the recent data breaches that happened to both government agencies And social media companiesIt’s not surprising that people are very skeptical about releasing their personal information.

Instagram’s new policy has had negative consequences similar to KOSA’s. To verify who is underage, Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has announced new users must send a photo to Instagram and let artificial intelligence analyze how old they are.

This faces similar issues regarding how these social media companies will manage this information, especially as they have been the target of data breaches in the past.

KOSA is also allowed violate the First Amendment. In the 2011 case “Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association,” both liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices ruled that a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors violates the First Amendment.

Former Supreme Court Justice and majority opinion author Antonin Scalia wrote“A legislature cannot create new categories of unprotected speech by simply weighing the value of a particular category against its social costs and then punishing it if it fails the test.”

This is what KOSA does. It seeks to redefine certain forms of speech as unprotected speech by weighing the social costs.

What makes this law even more worrying is that it could limit the information that young people can access. As previously mentioned, since KOSA’s duty of care to social media companies is intended to prevent harm to minors, this would encourage these organizations to become overly censorious.

After all, Meta and Snapchat probably don’t want to incur the ire of the Federal Trade Commission or any of the 50 state attorneys general, the bill’s chief enforcers.

The impact of this is that children may lose access to important content about the LGBTQ+ community, safe injection sites or to manage eating disorders. With attorneys general willing to go after them organizations that appear to be LGBTQ+ friendly, it wouldn’t be surprising if these attorneys general see KOSA as an opportunity to continue targeting marginalized groups.

Instagram’s new policy also encounters this problem. Because parents can monitor who their children communicate with, this leads to similar issues with accessing resources on topics like the LGBTQ+ community, which is incredibly important because online communities can sometimes be the only places where teenagers can feel free to express themselves or gain knowledge about the subject.

Some may view these policies as merely minor changes that may go unnoticed by the general public. This would not be the case.

KOSA’s reach could ultimately be much greater than lawmakers intend. In the bill, the said rules would apply to any service “that connects to the Internet and is used or could reasonably be expected to be used by a minor.” This means that even small forums, a game of Call of Duty or a WhatsApp group chat can be regulated.

Likewise, Instagram’s new policy will likely impact millions of accounts. To 95 percent of 13 to 17 year olds in the US use social media, and 76 percent use Instagram. Because these regulations are not easy apply For the US, but also for Great Britain, Australia and Canada, the impact of this policy change is global.

The lawmakers and parents advocating for these policies are rightly concerned about children and social media. Evidence of Generation Alpha (the so-called “iPad kids”) demonstrates the concerns of having unlimited access to the internet at such a young age.

But KOSA and Instagram’s teen accounts are not the way to address this problem. Parents must be proactive in this regard talk to their children about the dangers of social media and setting boundaries.

The editorials of the Daily Targum represent the views of the majority of the 156th editorial board. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of Targum Publishing Company or its staff.