Alabama House bills would limit social media access for minors

A group of people holding cell phones. An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved legislation that would limit access to social media by minors. (Daniel de la Hoz/Getty Images)

A House committee heard opposition and support for two bills that would limit access to social media for minors at a public hearing on Wednesday.

HB 235, sponsored by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, bans children 16 and younger from owning a social media account. HB 276, sponsored by Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, would expand limitations and parental controls to 18-year-olds.

Robbins said his initial intent was to pass the social media restrictions with his bill that put age restrictions and verification procedures for adult websites from last year’s session. 

“But I knew the tough nut to crack that social media would be, so I said, ‘Take first one bite at it through pornography, and the next session, once that got passed, then go and work on the social media issue,’” Robbins said.

Faulkner’s bill bans anyone 16 years or younger from creating social media accounts. It also includes parental supervision of an account that a parent can make for a child. Currently, federal law sets the social media age limit to 12 years old, Faulkner said.

“So that if you went to a social media site, and if you were not the age of 16, you couldn’t open that account,” Faulkner said.

Amy Bos, director of state and federal affairs for NetChoice, opposed both bills, citing concerns over free speech and privacy. She said that all Alabamians would have to share official identification under the legislation to prove that they are not minors. 

“While the bill intends to protect minors, it could create more harm by exposing them to security threats,” Bos told the House Child and Senior Advocacy Committee. “And let’s keep in mind this isn’t just about kids. Adults, too, would have to show either government ID some sort of verifying who they say that they are.”

Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, was supportive of both bills, and expressed concern of cyberbullying and wanted to hold parents accountable for minors on social media.

“We see so much violence that is on social media, from bullying and so forth, and it can lead to so many other bad consequences for other innocent children,” Drummond said. 

Bos suggested that the Legislature focus more on improving online literacy rather than outright banning social media for minors and creating privacy and free speech issues. 

“Rather than heavy handed mandates, we do recommend that Alabama focus on improving online literacy programs, as states like Florida and Virginia have done,” she said. “Educating students and parents about how to safely use social media is a more effective approach than imposing age verification schemes that are likely to face legal challenges and put user privacy at risk.”

Florida and Virginia have passed laws that require a social media literacy course be taught in schools. Robins said he is supportive of that, but his bill does not mandate the State Department of Education to create the course in order to maintain focus on core classes like reading and math.

“So I do agree that children need to learn it, because social media is a reality, and learning how to use LinkedIn and learning how to find jobs is the reality, but learning that maybe you shouldn’t communicate with this adult online,” Robbins said. 

Part of Robbins’ bill would prevent minors with social media from communicating with adult accounts they are not following. 

“Parents would have full access to the account, and a minor cannot receive messages from an adult, so unless they are already friends with that person,” Robbins said.

Another opponent, Knox Argo, requested that both bills exempt video games from the ban and make the definition of social media more clear.

“We want to exempt video games,” Argo said. “Like all these statues that have been passed have done that, the definition in the Alabama bill is kind of vague.”

Committee Chair Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg, said the committee would not vote on the bills because of the public hearing, but did not say when the committee would bring them up again.