Children are succumbing to tech addiction. Georgia has a bipartisan solution.

I believe we are seeing a seismic shift in accountability for the tech industry — and it can’t come soon enough for Georgia’s children.

As a co-chair of the bipartisan Georgia Senate “Impact of Social Media and Artificial Intelligence on Children and Privacy Platform Protection” Study Committee, I heard firsthand from parents who lost children to suicide and who stated with certainty their child’s suicide was tied to social media use.

One father, whose son Manny recently left for his first year of college, told us how Manny struggled with social media addiction, writing class papers on the effects of social media on kids’ brains and on how addictive the platforms are. Yet, even as he was writing these papers, Manny struggled. He watched 15 hours of TikTok videos on the very day he died by suicide. Manny wanted to stop, but he couldn’t.

SB 495 would regulated tech’s addictive features

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

We now have more than a decade of data that documents an alarming increase in depression, anxiety and self-harm, especially among children and teens, that began to accelerate in the years following the release of the iPhone.

Research also has identified potentially related decreases in behaviors that promote mental well-being, such as sleep, time spent socializing with friends and the ability to maintain sustained attention to a task.

Lawsuits are continuing to play out, with many of them bringing to light the true harm social media use can cause young people. Despite the mounting evidence, Congress has failed to pass any meaningful legislation.

In the absence of federal regulations, Georgia can step up for our kids. I recently filed the Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (Senate Bill 495), signed by 40 senators representing both parties.

This bill seeks to regulate the addictive features companies use to increase user engagement. The bill bans companies from using these features in platforms used by minors.

Treat this issue like the fight against Big Tobacco

The Age-Appropriate Design Code Act is based on laws other states have enacted. Passing bills to safeguard social media isn’t easy with billion- and trillion-dollar digital media companies lobbying aggressively against them under the Gold Dome.

These companies know that addictive features translate to more engagement and thus more profit.

Simply put, the longer a child stays on the phone, the more money the company makes selling data, and they don’t want to give that up.

Tobacco companies didn’t want restrictions on their products, either, but we now know how many millions of lives have been saved by not marketing cigarettes to children.

Unlike other issues, protecting our kids from harmful digital products does have bipartisan support.

Our legislators need to hear from you that this should be a priority. We need parents, grandparents and kids to organize support and make their voices heard. The children we save might just be our own.

Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, represents District 40 in the Georgia Senate.