Social Media Bill Passed by Senate Threatens Harm Reduction and More

Shoshana Weismann, digital media director for the R Street Institute, which works on issues including harm reduction, agrees on the nature of the risks, when the bill is likely to make platforms extremely risk-averse.

“This is really going to hurt [educational and advocacy] content,” she told Filter. “It’s really hard to differentiate content trying to sell drugs to kids versus content about the problems with drug use, or here’s how to get help. Even a thorough study on the uses and misuses of marijuana probably would be blocked for kids because platforms don’t want to take the chance that it would get a child into marijuana, or be content they would be sued for.”

“I think the reason it got so much Senate support is because one, it’s ‘for the kids’,” Weismann continued. “If you’re going to have opposition to it, it has to be really solid and specific. Even then, you’re going to take a lot of heat if you oppose it. Then I think lawmakers think social media is causing all the world’s ills, despite meager evidence … there’s evidence that a lot of minors use social media in really productive ways and some don’t, but it has to be something that’s handled at the family level…”

The bill doesn’t require age verification in order to use social media, but both Leventoff and Weismann, among others, see age verification on the platforms as the logical outcome. That would mean everyone who wants to use social media having to submit their government identification, or perhaps use facial recognition or other software…

For those who do have ID and continue to use social media, such requirements and the large-scale collection of personal information could also create a heightened risk of identity theft. That’s a particular issue for minors, as Weismann explained in a blog post, citing an estimate that 25 percent will be victims of identify theft before they turn 18. Long-term consequences may include being denied credit due to fraud, or even getting a criminal record for something you didn’t do.

“This is going to make child ID theft a huge problem: When you have a database of kids’ most sensitive information, it’s a huge target for hackers,” Weismann said. “Lawmakers are completely overlooking this…”

The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, has previously received restricted grants from the R Street Institute to support harm reduction reporting projects. Filter‘s Editorial Independence Policy applies.