Should the age for children to be on social media be raised to 16?

Sen. Josh Hawley wants to create a legal age to be allowd on social media. (US)




Senator Josh Hawley of R-Mo., intends to make his focus in the current Congress a legislative package aimed at protecting children online — including by setting the age threshold to be on social media at 16.




The Republicans are really interested in making serious changes for internet users.

Direct Link:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-josh-hawley-wants-create-legal-age-social-media-rcna69045

Senator Josh Hawley plans to introduce a new legislative package requiring platforms to verify the age and ID of it's users.

I'm all for advocating for a child's protection on the web. No argument there at all. I'm okay with the age of children being allowed on the internet if changed to 16, though "kids" know how to get around that block and have for years. What I'm not sure I'm okay with is feeling like I'm an owner of a liquor store and to gain entrance and access you must show ID? These are only my first thoughts as I'm processing this proposed legislation. I may change my mind tomorrow and feel differently when I really think about it, or I might just stew on it for a few days. For now, I'm just thinking of all of those hurdles.

I think it's safe to say, that most people do not like sharing their ID information with a forum/social platform, and those that do, really don't have civil liberties on their mind most of the time to see the rabbit trail of "photo ID" requirements. For me, if I was asked for photo ID to join a website, I'd go elsewhere. I don't like sharing my photo ID, my address, my phone number or anything too personal where I don't know "to whom" that information is resting with should be readily available. Trust is a big issue and I could see that the "plugged in" parents will say "no" to photo ID for their kids (rightly so) and most of those same parents will also say no. *What really needs to happen is parents need to pay attention to what Johnny and Salley are doing online and parent for once. Sorry, not meant to be harsh, but there's a lot of value in being involved in your child's online life as a guide and for safety. I was involved and not as a helicopter mom, but I was there to take part in the navigation of being online and what to do when "whatever" happens.

So where does that leave us....back in the same place that the republicans fail to see. The dominant websites still stay dominate, and the small but epic websites can't get ground.

The ONLY way I see this working, is if all websites had some certification that proved the webmasters/owners of the websites were approved in some way but then, as I write this, now it's putting the onus on me to put up the sign that my website is okay, see, I've been certified? I'd likely also have to go through an extensive questionnaire, evaluation and approval and knowing congress, they will find a way for me to pay a fee (possibly yearly too) to own and operate my hobby websites which takes in $0.00 and cost me $+++'s every month to keep the lights on for members. Naw, as I write out my thoughts, that just wouldn't work for me....sigh....

Link to this article:

https://reclaimthenet.org/hawley-wants-social-media-platforms-to-use-id-age-verification

My thoughts are exactly the same as yours, couldn't agree more especially on the parenting, but that's a whole other "Realm!" maybe for another day, and yes, it would probably be the end for my websites, and possibly developers such as Social Engine! I don't know about the US or other countries for that matter, but here in the UK we don't have "ID Cards"! This is from the UK .gov website.

Agreed, Mark....you went a step further which is worth considering and that is the stability of platforms and their possible demise if the US decided to mucky up website rules with poor legislation, which I understand the intent of the legislation, but it has to be designed with a lot of thought and that's were I don't have any confidence in their end game legislation.

Like you mentioned, I see also, the complications legislation would cause website's like ours and that it would be extremely difficult to operate under those conditions where ID is required to be a member.

Thanks for sharing UK's acceptable ID's. The US has driver's license's, passports and basic ID cards for non drivers. I think you still have to be at least 15 to have an ID card?