Sen. Josh Hawley proposes legal age to allow kids on social media
Hawley wants parents to be able to force tech companies to delete their kids' data
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is pushing for legislation that would create a legal age for children to be allowed on social media, arguing tech companies have engaged in harmful practices that put profits over "protecting kids."
Hawley has long been a major critic of social media platforms and tech companies in general, repeatedly calling for an all-out ban on the Chinese-owned app TikTok. Hawley proposed enforcing a minimum age for social media use at 16 and requiring social media companies to verify the ages of their users.
"For me, this is about protecting kids, protecting their mental health, protecting their safety," Hawley told NBC News in a Tuesday interview. "There's ample evidence to this effect that big tech companies put their profits ahead of protecting kids online."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The whole aim of this agenda is: Let's do something real and tangible, that is going to protect kids online and get power back to parents.
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has proposed enforcing a minimum age for social media use. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Sen. Josh Hawley has proposed enforcing a minimum age for social media use. (Getty Images)
Hawley argues his bill can have bipartisan support, as Democrats are similarly critical of large tech companies.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’ve had a lot of conversations with Democrats across the ailse and over the years about this topic generally and about different pieces of this," Hawley told NBC. "I don’t see this as a partisan issue. I mean, this is about protecting kids from the irresponsible and rapacious big tech companies. Every parent in America, whatever your political persuasion, or if you have none, can agree with that."
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President Biden and other Democrats have called for more strict data privacy rules for Americans. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., urged Apple and Google to ban TikTok from their respective app stores last week, arguing the app presented a national security risk.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Like most social media platforms, TikTok collects vast and sophisticated data from its users, including faceprints and voiceprints. Unlike most social media platforms, TikTok poses a unique concern because Chinese law obligates ByteDance… to ‘support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work,’" Bennet wrote in a letter to the companies' CEOs, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai.
President Biden has called for stricter data privacy rules for social media companies. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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"These obvious risks render TikTok, in its current form, an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States. No company subject to CCP dictates should have the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population. Given these risks, I urge you to remove TikTok from your respective app stores immediately," he added.