Sites such as TikTok or Instagram came under the spotlight of U.S. lawmakers. The intention is to address how to get rid of the features that generate young people to be glued to the smartphone. The concern is whether there may be the possibility of an adolescent mental breakdown from this situation.
The young North Americans, who have been consulted in different cities of the country, all highlight the same problem. Millions of videos follow one after the other and generate hours of screen time. Social networks such as Instagram and TikTok have been catching on with teenagers. However, other websites, such as #ForYou, have an endless stream of videos that make it difficult to leave when you want to watch “one more”.
Legislators and health
Increasingly, teenagers spend endless hours in front of screens, whether computer, tablet or smartphone. To such an extent that different studies on adolescents have shown that they have had experiences similar to that of an addiction. All this in terms of watching videos for hours on end or compulsively sharing photos on social networks such as Instagram.
From there, the proposal to “protect the children” emerged in U.S. legislators. The intention is to curb the appeal of social networks to younger users. A bill has emerged from Minnesota aimed at preventing the use of algorithms in children. Meanwhile, in California, a proposal was put forward where parents will be able to sue social networking companies for addicting their children.
On the other hand, the U.S. Senate is dealing with a bill called the “Child Online Safety Act”. It calls on the companies that own social networks to create tools to allow greater parental control. This involves reducing the amount of time spent in front of the screen or disabling attention-grabbing functions, such as the automatic playback of content.
