California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, introduced Tuesday his pledge to restrict college students’ smartphone use throughout the college day, pointing to statements from the Biden administration that social media harms the mental health of kids.
The choice comes after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy urged Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms about their influence on younger folks, comparable to the warning labels on cigarettes and alcohol about their impacts on an individual’s health, according to POLITICO, which first reported Newsom’s announcement.
Newsom and his spouse, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have warned for years about the hurt of social media to kids, saying tech corporations have been blocking efforts to defend younger folks.
Last 12 months, Newsom known as on NetChoice to drop a lawsuit towards the kids’s on-line security legislation, the Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, that he signed in 2022. NetChoice, whose members embody tech giants like Meta, Amazon and Google, is a commerce affiliation that advocates without cost expression and free enterprise on the web.
STATE LAWMAKERS PUSH FOR BAN ON PHONES IN SCHOOL
California Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced Tuesday his pledge to restrict college students’ smartphone use throughout the college day. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The governor stated Tuesday he plans to construct on a legislation he signed in 2019 that gave college districts the energy to restrict or ban college students’ use of smartphones throughout college hours. He stated he would work along with his Democratic-controlled Legislature throughout the present session to cross a measure to restrict smartphone use in faculties.
“As the Surgeon General affirmed, social media is harming the mental health of our youth,” Newsom stated in a press release. “Building on legislation I signed in 2019, I look forward to working with the Legislature to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day. When children and teens are in school, they should be focused on their studies — not their screens.”
The California School Boards Association stated college districts needs to be making choices on whether or not to regulate smartphone use in faculties, reasonably than the state.
“We support legislation which empowers school leaders to make policy decisions at a local level that reflect their community’s concerns and what’s necessary to support their students,” California School Boards Association spokesperson Troy Flint informed The Associated Press.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy urged Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms about their influence on kids. (REUTERS/Tom Brenner)
The Los Angeles Unified School District board voted Tuesday for the district to set up insurance policies prohibiting college students’ smartphone use throughout the college day, with some exceptions. Board Member Nick Melvoin famous how “students are glued to their cell phones, not unlike adults.”
“When I talk to teachers and students and parents and principals, I also hear the same, which is that more and more time is being spent on policing student phone use,” he stated at the assembly. “There’s not coherent enforcement, and they’re looking for some support from the board and from the district.”
Newsom’s announcement is noteworthy as California’s Silicon Valley is the place many tech corporations are positioned.
The choice additionally places the California governor on the similar facet of the debate as Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who earlier this 12 months signed one of the most restrictive bans in the nation on kids’s social media use.
In latest years, a California proposal to tremendous social media platforms for addicting kids has failed to change into legislation. However, Democrat state Sen. Nancy Skinner’s invoice to ban platforms from offering addictive feeds to kids handed the state Senate in May.
Gov. Newsom stated he plans to construct on a legislation he signed in 2019 that gave college districts the energy to restrict or ban college students’ use of smartphones throughout college. (Getty Images)
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“A warning label is important, but we also need to provide parents with tools to protect their kids from preventable harms,” Skinner informed POLITICO, saying her invoice would complement Murthy’s proposal.
State Sen. Henry Stern, a Democrat, launched a invoice earlier this 12 months to develop college districts’ energy to restrict social media use for college students throughout college. He stated he could be open to pulling his invoice, which already handed the Senate, if Newsom and the Legislature can discover a higher different.
“It’s just too hard for every teacher, every school, or every parent to have to figure this out on their own,” Stern informed The Associated Press. “There’s some times where government just has to step in and make some bigger rules of the road.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
