Among the bills Governor Glenn Youngkin signed in the last week was a Democrat-led effort to add new limits to social media for kids. Similar laws have faced legal challenge.
State senator and high school civics teacher Schuyler VanValkenburg says he has seen firsthand the damage caused by social media.
“The kind of damage it can do to kids' attention spans, the harmful effects it has on their academics, their mental health, their socialization,” he told Radio IQ.
So, he pushed a new state law that creates daily time limits for users under 16 and requires parental consent to increase that limit. It also empowers the attorney general’s office to enforce the law under the state’s consumer protection act.
Governor Glenn Youngkin signed the bill, though some of his amendments to add more limits were rejected by legislators. In a statement Youngkin said the final effort quote “puts parents back in the driver’s seat.”
Facebook parent company Meta pushed against the bill early in the process but also noted they already have features like teen accounts which offer similar, parentally approved time limits.
“We appreciate and share the goal of the lawmakers who helped pass this legislation: keeping young people safe online,” a Meta spokesperson told Radio IQ in a statement.
Federal courts have since struck down similar social media limit laws in other states on First Amendment grounds, but VanValkenburg hopes the future challenges will side with him.
“I think this bill gets at a compelling state interest in the least restrictive way, but that’s something we’ll hash out in the courts,” he said.
The law is set to go into effect this January.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
