JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is pushing new legislation aimed at limiting teenagers\u2019 social media use, saying the proposal would give parents more control over their children\u2019s online activity.<\/p>\n
The proposed Safe Screens Act would apply to teens ages 14 to 17 and would impose several restrictions on social media platforms. The measure would block overnight access to social media apps, limit teens to two hours of daily use and disable features such as cosmetic filters, autoplay functions and infinite scrolling.<\/p>\n
The proposal would also prohibit artificial intelligence chatbot features that simulate emotional or sexual companionship. Additionally, the legislation would prevent chatbots from encouraging self-harm, eating disorders or other behavior considered harmful.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Clinical psychologist Justin D\u2019Arienzo said excessive social media use can negatively affect teenagers. According to D\u2019Arienzo, spending more than three hours a day on social media can contribute to \u201can increase in depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and also weaker school performance.\u201d<\/p>\n However, D\u2019Arienzo said social media can also play an important role in helping young people maintain social connections.<\/p>\n \u201cIt keeps them in the loop. So it\u2019s not all bad,\u201d D\u2019Arienzo said.<\/p>\n LaVita Tuff, policy director for Moms Against Media Addiction (MAMA), supports the proposed legislation and called it an important first step toward protecting children online.<\/p>\n \u201cThese apps and these platforms aren\u2019t meant for kids to just spend a short amount of time on them; they\u2019re built for there to be compulsive use,\u201d Tuff said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Tuff also noted that suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young teenagers and argued that social media is a significant contributing factor.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t hold big tech accountable and make them responsible for the way they create these platforms to be this way, then we\u2019re going to continue to see these harms really impact families all across this country,\u201d Tuff said.<\/p>\n The Safe Screens Act has not yet been proposed in the upcoming legislative session. Action News Jax will continue to follow developments as the measure moves through the legislative process.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is pushing new legislation aimed at limiting teenagers\u2019 social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[643,6277,19396,55102,88568,28,116,118,117,170926,6278,104355,149777,170928,634,170929,641,170927],"class_list":["post-436472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news_jack","tag-attorney_general","tag-ax_news","tag-casey","tag-casey_stone","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-james_upmeyer","tag-james_uthmeyer","tag-justin_derenzo","tag-justin_durenzo","tag-lavita_tuff","tag-local","tag-moms_against_media_addiction","tag-north_bank","tag-safe_screens_act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}