(WXYZ) — Children with cellphones receive, on average, 200 notifications a day with the constant pressure to be engaged online 24/7, and now some Michigan lawmakers say they're taking action to protect them.
"I think that in a lot of situations, parents are not aware of it, because they haven't been impacted by the negative effects of social media," said Jennifer Buta.
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Buta is a mom to three kids, one of which she will hold only in her memory now after he took his own life as a reaction to extortion carried out on social media.
"You don't know who your children are communicating with," said State Rep. Mark Tisdel.
In this digital age, Michigan lawmakers say they are working to protect our children from the dangerous effects social media and the impact it has on young, developing brains.
"Now approaching our 13th year of a mental health crisis, particularly among teen and tween girls," said Rep. Tisdel.
In the bill introduced by Rep. Tisdel, age verification is one of the main focuses.
"Kids don't always tell the truth when they go on and register for an account, and they're still going to continue to do that and kind of bypass any laws or restrictions that are put in place just to get the account," said Buta.
But Rep. Tisdel says the same way credit card companies and online gambling sites use third-party verification to confirm someone's identity, social media platforms should be required to do the same.
"This is nothing new. It's simply applying that kind of technology and that kind of scrutiny to teens and tweens — any minor who is not of the age, really — to consent to a contractual agreement," said Rep. Tisdel.
But this bill is more than just age verification, it also includes a social media curfew Tisdel says would be enforced by the social media companies.
"Sleep deprivation is a significant part of poor mental health. And it's just that ongoing, unsupervised unmonitored access to the World Wide Web that is a concern," he said.
This curfew is backed by studies that show the use of smartphones and social media are the number one cause of sleep disruption among teens.
There would also be other parental controls, like having access to the username and password of your child's accounts, and being notified if any login information changes.
Rep Tisdel tells me his goal is for this bill to be passed by the end of next year.
