A bill that would ban children under a certain age from owning or using social media accounts was changed slightly in the Indiana Senate to remove language that would have required a curfew for adolescents from using the apps after a certain time.
Senate Bill 199 was changed Monday to no longer mandate a time limit for teens between the ages of 14 to 17 from accessing social media between 10:30 pm to 6 a.m.
If approved, the bill would still require children between the ages of 14 to 17 to get parental permission first before being able to use social media.
The bill language was also changed to state that children 12 and under cannot own or use social media at all, if the bill is approved. The measure previously said that children 13 years and younger couldn’t own accounts.
Sen. Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond), the author, said the change was to align the bill’s language with what the state code already defines a “child” as.
The bill still has to pass the full Senate and House, but if it does, it would require age verification for everyone who uses social media in Indiana.
The legislation doesn’t identify specific apps or websites that would be banned for children and teens, but does specify features of applications or websites that could qualify:
- Allows users to upload content or view content of other users.
- Has a daily user base that is 10% or more of 18-year-olds or younger and spends on average two hours per day or longer on the website.
- Uses algorithms to analyze user data or user information to select the content shown.
- Uses “addictive features” like continuously loading content, live streaming abilities, autoplay videos, no apparent page breaks or displays personal interactive metrics to indicate their reaction to content.
Some lawmakers voiced concern that the definition istoo ambiguous and could inadvertently bar children from using sites for educational purposes, or the audio content app Spotify, Amazon Prime and even church websites.
“It seems to me that we got to have some kind of language that says what appropriate is,” said Sen. Michael Young (R-Indianapolis), who voiced concern during discussion on the bill that religious websites could potentially be affected.
The bill must pass out of the Senate by Thursday in order to still be considered by the House.
Contact Government Reporter Caroline Beck at cbeck@wfyi.org.