The Georgia Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill banning minors from downloading and creating accounts on social networks without the consent of their parents or legal guardians. The bill passed in the state Senate 48-7, while in the House of Representatives, it passed 120-45.
This bill, introduced by the Georgia Republican Party, will also ban social media from being used on school devices and will impose certain restrictions on the internet, in addition to requiring pornography websites to ask users to verify if they are of legal age.
Republican Representative Scott Hilton is one of the promoters of the bill. He used a metaphor to exemplify the impact social media has on minors and stressed that it directly affects their mental health, in statements collected by Associated Press:
Every rose has a thorn, and that’s social media in this generation. It’s great for connectivity and activism, but it has reared its ugly head on mental health.
Democratic Representative David Wilkerson disagrees. He said he would try to prevent the law from being signed into law by the governor. "If we do pass this, we’ll be back fixing this next year, because there are too many issues with this bill," he said.
Now that the state Congress overwhelmingly supported it, the bill will go to the governor's office, where Brian Kemp will have to decide whether or not to sign it into law. If he does, Georgia will join the list of states that have implemented similar regulations, such as Texas, Louisiana, Utah and Arkansas.
