Utah kids might be rockin’ and rollin’, but they won’t be tikin’ and tokin’.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed a new law in Utah that requires official, legal parental consent for anyone under eighteen years old to be on TikTok. It is the first law of its kind in the nation, and it will surely be a pilot program as congress looks at what to do with TikTok nationally.
If a parent approves the usage of TikTok, the law also says parents must have a legal right and access to any content their child’s posts or messages privately. From 10:30pm to 6:30am, TikTok will be inaccessible for kids, unless their parents take the effort to deliberately override it. And strangers can no longer message kids.
A GOP state senator sponsoring the bill said he primarily wanted to safeguard the mental health of Utah’s kids, as well as shield them from sexual exploitation.
But a child development professor had an interesting take as she explained her opposition to the NY Times: “We know that marginalized youth, such as L.G.B.T.Q. kids, use social media in some really important ways to find belonging and support, especially when they don’t have family support.”
She joins civil liberties advocates in saying this is censorship, plain and simple.
What do you think? Both sides have a point as this issue comes up nationally, and other states may follow suit.
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