(WXYZ) — Kids under age 14 in the state of Florida may be saying good bye to social media very soon.
This week, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law effectively banning things like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for kids. The bill also requires parental permission for 14- to 15-year-olds.
Republicans who back the bill say children don’t yet have the brain development to know they’re being sucked into addictive technologies or to see the harm and step away.
I went to several communities in Wayne County talking to parents, grandparents and some teens about the ban.
"I think people that are my age and are on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, stuff like that, usually it’s to check their friends social media pages, see what’s going on in the world," said 16-year-old Samantha Taylor.
"Do you think your friends would be okay with being banned from social media," I asked.
"No, I don’t think so," Taylor said.
"You know your kid so if you see outside behavior you don’t recognize, I feel like that’s when you should investigate, but of course monitor your kids," said parent Sharonda Warren. "Sometimes I feel like social media can take over kids lives so without that, I don’t know. It’s concerning a little bit but would I be upset? No I wouldn’t be upset. It gives the kids something to do. Go outside and play like they used to do."
"There’s no control, even the parents. You look around the table or something and you see 35 year old adults that are on (social media)," said grandparent Roy Sowersby as he stood next to his wife Jill.
"The thing that concerns me is (my granddaughter) looking at the images on social media and comparing herself thinking she’s not good enough, thinking she should be that and how unrealistic it all is," said Jill Sowersby. "They’re not outside. They’re laying in their beds. They’re laying on their couches. They’re not getting fresh air. They’re not interacting with people. Their world just gets way too small. It’s them and a machine."
"We have pedophiles and we have people who don’t do the right thing and they’re talking to our younger generation and not guiding them in the right way so in my opinion banning social media for anyone under 14 in Florida is probably a great idea," said Earl Phillips.
"I think that is a bit of a government overreach at that point. I think maybe an age range might need to be installed or some sort of protections to keep kids separate but to ban it entirely doesn’t seem like the right idea," said Kyle Veasey."You have to make sure the kids are educated using those kinds of things. Just to blindly give (social media) to children and expect them to know how to use it isn’t good either. Instead of the government being in charge, it should be a parents decision and their responsibility."
