Alabama U.S. Senator Katie Britt is working on federal legislation to limit the access social media content creators get to the nation’s kids. It would prevent anyone under the age of thirteen from using social media. The bill would stop high tech companies from targeting youngsters under seventeen. This builds on legislation passed in Montgomery last year that limits cell phone use by students in school. In the nation of Denmark, there’s a similar effort underway. But, it goes beyond the nuts and bolts of social media to address how kids behave in general.
Denmark and Alabama have things in common when it comes to kids in social media. Both work to limit student access to cell phones at school. Alabama passed its law last year. Denmark's been doing it since 2023. Now, this European country wants to amp things up and for One central reason,
“A big, big thing, is that you live in a digitalized and therefore also commercialized childhood,” said Christine Lund. She's Chair of the Danish Youth Council.
“So we see that as a driver, actually, in many things, also in Europe. Self esteem and so on, to kind of drive the development of not being well. And, then we came with these 35 recommendations, not only to the government, but also to institutions, children, themselves, parents and so on,” she observed.
Lund is only 30 years old, but she's already served on a special well being commission that aimed to understand how Danish kids were coping with stress and social problems. Mental health concerns tied to social media exposure was one of the Commission's biggest topics. And, the Danish government appears to be on board. State Minister Mette Frederiksen, the leader of Denmark's government, said last fall that phones were stealing children's childhood. That helped lead to a proposed national ban on kids under 15 from accessing social media.
Christine Lund says teachers, parents and even young people like the changing dialog about phone use.
“Sometimes it's made like a generational conflict. I don't think it is,” she said. “If you ask children and young people, the majority of them would like to spend less time on their phone, and many of them would like to not have a phone if their friends do not have a phone.”
Lund says the main issue now is just how far phone and social media restrictions should go. What was once a minority position has become mainstream in Danish society.
“When we started, and I said, like a tech expert in the commission, and then I think it was a minority who were discussing this, how do screens affect children and young people's life? And throughout those one and a half year, and now for two and a half years, the debate has changed immensely. Now it's a huge debate,” she said.
Lund calls the current status of social media a wild west scenario that needs to be more tightly regulated. Because of this, the proposed ban is more of a stopgap measure, rather than a permanent fixture of online engagement.
“We actually believe in the Balanced Digital physical life,” said Lund. “But right now, the framework, you can say, does not have the right regulation in the digital world. So actually, I see the ban as a short term, middle term tool, until you have a regulation that can deliver the balance.”
This kind of change is also getting a warm reception in Alabama, Trayce Strichik has had a long career of public service in the state government. She now serves as a board member for Voices for Alabama's children. That's a Montgomery based Children's Advocacy Group. As a mom, Tracy says she definitely feels that some form of phone or social media restriction is necessary for kids in a classroom setting.
“And I will add that I was a former school board member,” she adds. “And, so we heard from a lot from teachers that they were competing with computers and cell phones. I would see that in during the school hour, students would post things on the internet that were bullying, that were, you know, people in the back, children, other students in the “bathroom, or something that was embarrassing, maybe that they answered in class.”
Tracy says that the data about phone use has provided some striking findings.
“I mean, we've seen things like teen pregnancies go down, and a lot of that has to do with the lack of interactions with the real human. It's interactions with social media,” she said.
Children's advocates are also looking for data on social media impact in Denmark. Søren Aggeboe has a good understanding of the issue with a nuanced perspective. He's a youth counselor at Headspace. That's a national organization with chapters around Denmark that give vulnerable young people a place to talk and feel heard.
“Many of the youngsters that we see that suffer from maybe a low degree of self esteem or loneliness or a sense of being distracted from what you could call real, physical, offline relations,” Aggeboe said. “Many of these issues will tap on the issues about social media and being addicted or spending too much time on cell phones and social media platforms, etc.”
Soren is skeptical a social media ban would be effective. He highlights that many young people have strong bonds online and that building resilient offline communities has to go hand in hand with restricting online ones.
“We're not completely convinced that a ban is the right solution,” he said. “Restrictions is a good idea, but whether the restrictions should come from the state, from the family, or from the surroundings in the society, that's an open question. But surely we would need to have a discussion about how we could help our youngsters and guide them towards a more healthy use of social media platforms.
As in Denmark, there was active pressure on the state legislature in Alabama to restrict social media and phone exposure for minors outside of school. Tracy Strichik, with Voices for Alabama's Children, describes what some of her group is doing to make this happen.
“We really worked hard this year to I think it was HB 78 that limited screen time for our children that are birthed to five,” she said. “And that did pass, and it'll require that those under the age of two are not exposed to screens at all, and then limited screen time for ages two to five. We also took a stand for limiting screen time K to 12. It passed through the house, but never made it to the Senate.”
Tracy notes, the focus Act, the one that bans phone use in school, has already had a positive effect on classroom environments.
“We do some focus groups with some of our our local communities, and in one community, we had a few of our teenagers that were at the high school and they wanted to speak a lot about the cell phone ban in classrooms. And at first they were ruling their eyes, and then one of the students said, well, it makes me feel safer to speak up in class because I'm not being bullied by someone that and scared that I might have the wrong answer.”
As of now, Denmark is still in the process of forming a new government after elections this spring, so the legislation to ban social media for kids is on hold for the time being. But, as evidence for the negative effects of social media exposure continues to mount it's only safe to assume that more and more governments will have an interest in passing laws to keep kids safe online.
