Social Media Ban

UTRSOL seeks to pursue, provide, and support the prohibition of individuals under the age of [18, 16, or 14] from accessing social media platforms, aiming to address concerns about the mental health impacts of social media on minors. Florida's HB 3  Online Protections for Minors bill, passed in 2024, which limits minors of age [14] from accessing social media. Texas attempted to pass a more restrictive bill earlier this year (2025) during their legislative session, HB 186 Relating to prohibiting use of social media by children which sought to prohibit minors under the age of [18] from accessing social media platforms. Of late, Australia passed their Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill in 2024 that limited access to social media for minors under [16] years of age. 

Legislation to this extent will lessen  the instances where minors actively or unintentionally engage and interact with adults or minors in an unlawful way. These bills also aim to protect children from potential negative consequences associated with social media, such as cyberbullying, addiction, exposure to inappropriate content,  potential harm to mental health, including increased risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, as well as negative impacts on self-esteem and well-being. While banning access to these platforms would be an extraordinary infringement on young people’s First Amendment rights and would represent a large expansion of government authority over who can access which online services, we as a society have already determine what rights young people are allowed to have via voting age, drinking age, consent age, or driver's license or learners permit age. As technology progresses, we have to adjust to protect our youth by determining what they are allowed to have access to. Banning social media use for minors would solve the collective-action problem. Youth would now have the freedom to spend less time scrolling and more time interacting with each other in meaningful ways. Parents would no longer have to choose between social isolation and the harm brought on by device addiction. If we support laws restricting children from buying cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, and lottery tickets, we should do the same for this new, destructive addiction: social media. Below are the links to the bills under this section.