A group of House Republicans pushing for North Carolina to join other states that have imposed age restrictions on social media use want to go further to require app stores to check users’ ages.
Rep. Jeff Zenger (R-Forsyth) said at a press conference Thursday that House Bill 301 represents an attempt to shield children from online predators.
He described child predators’ access to children through social media platforms as “the wild west.”
Zenger is proposing an age-verification clearinghouse funded by app stores, an approach he said could be a model for the rest of the country.
More than a dozen states have passed social media age verification laws. Federal judges have blocked some of those laws in suits challenging their constitutionality.
Zenger said Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and other platforms, supports the bill. The company suggested legislation that would also require age verification for app stores, he said.
Meta wants to push responsibility for age verification onto Apple and Google app stores, Bloomberg reported last year.
In an opinion published in The Hill this month, Jennifer Hanley, Meta’s head of safety policy in North America, argued for industry-wide age-appropriate content standards. “And federal legislation that puts parents in the driver’s seat by letting them approve their teens’ app downloads right in the app store.”
Apps have chat rooms or small social media platforms where predators are looking for children, Zenger said.
As it stands, the bill would ban social media accounts for users younger than 14. Fourteen and 15-year-olds would have to have the consent of a parent or guardian to create or maintain accounts.
Facebook already has a policy prohibiting children younger than 13 from setting up accounts. Facebook Teen Accounts for users 13 to 17 years old have a parental supervision feature. YouTube also has features for parents to control teenagers’ use.
Bills to ban foreign purchase of farmland, social media for minors move forward in NC House
Most social media platforms have age restrictions, but children younger than 13 still use them.
The bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in the House a year ago. State Senate committees are now debating it.
Rep. Neal Jackson (R-Moore) said the bill puts parents in control of their children’s online activities.
“That’s really what this bill is about,” he said. “It’s giving power back to parents rather than Silicon Valley and their algorithms.”
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