North Carolina's House of Representatives has introduced HB 301, the Social Media Protections for Minors Act, which seeks to ban children under 14 from social media platforms with specific addictive features and a significant underage user base. For those aged 14-15, parental consent will be required to create accounts, though the bill does not explain the consent process. It also includes an age verification requirement for sites with content considered harmful to minors, focusing on users aged 16 and older, aligning with the state’s age of consent. However, effectiveness remains questionable based on studies of similar laws.
HB 301, called the Social Media Protections for Minors Act, aims to ban children under 14 from social media, emphasizing the need for age verification for certain sites.
The bill introduces nuanced age limits, allowing 14-15 year-olds to access social media only with parental permission, but lacks clarity on how consent will be verified.
In a departure from typical age-verification laws, this bill mandates that visitors to sites with harmful content must be 16 or older, mirroring the state's age of consent.
Recent studies indicate that past age-verification laws have been largely ineffective in preventing minors from accessing explicit material, raising questions about this bill's efficacy.
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