Youth social media act is worth support, action

A Pew Research Center study shows approximately 20% of teenagers report social media has damaged their mental health. Interacting with online platforms (this includes video games and chats, too) can create a host of ways for young people to endanger not just their mental health, but their physical safety, too. U.S. Sens. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and John Thune, R-S.D., are joining Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in supporting the Kids Online Safety Act, which would help protect kids' personal data on these online platforms AND give parents and guardians safety tools to help protect minors from harmful content and interactions. "We've seen how manipulative algorithms can overwhelm kids with content that harms their mental and physical health — whether it's self-harm, eating disorders or violent material pushed onto their feeds. Parents deserve to know when their children's data is being shared and how these addictive, harmful algorithms work. The Kids Online Safety Act would give families tools to protect their children from content that puts them at risk. I'm proud to join this strong bipartisan coalition to make the online world safer for our kids," Husted said. In fact, the above-mentioned senators are among 70 supporting the effort, as are Microsoft, Snap, Fairplay, the NAACP, Apple, Nintendo of America, Christian Camp and Conference Association, the Foundation United, Parents for Safe Online Spaces, Street Grace, the American Psychological Association, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and more than 200 other organizations. Husted has also pitched the CHAT Act, which would (as much as is possible) bar minors from accessing sexually explicit and harmful content from AI companion chatbots. It's a brave and sometimes frightening new world — one in which our children are facing dangers we never imagined. Husted and the others must continue their push with these and other measures. And, as lawmakers are working to keep up, parents MUST do the same.