Restrict Missouri kids’ social media access now. We’ll wonder why we didn’t act sooner | Opinion

One-third of teenage girls seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021. This devastating fact, recently reported by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, can lead to only one conclusion: Our society is failing young people.

This is especially worrisome to me as a father of three sweet and joyful children. I am deeply concerned about the world it seems my kids are destined to inhabit. Something has to be done to improve and protect the mental health of our young people, or things are going to get worse. In fact, they have been getting worse for the last 20 years.

The reasons for the rampant mental health epidemic faced by our society are wide-ranging. And, as is the case with all of life’s difficult problems, there is no one easy solution. But there is one straightforward thing we can do: We can limit access to social media for young people.

The impact of social media on mental health has been all but conclusively proven to be negative. Study after study has shown social media use can cause anxiety, depression and other health challenges among children and adults alike. Social media is addictive and toxic, and exacerbates many of the issues teenagers already face.

Fortunately, the opposite is also true. Studies have also shown that limiting or decreasing the time you spend on social media improves your well-being and mental health. So then, if you want to improve your mental health and quality of life, leaving social media is a good way to do it. And yet, despite knowing all of this, most of us spend too much time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

Certainly I do not think there are many teens stepping away from social media for the sake of their mental health. So then, it is time for Missouri to follow Utah’s lead.

Recently, Utah became the first state to enact a law limiting how children can use social media. The law requires parental consent before kids can sign up for social media platforms such as TikTok, prohibits the use of social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., and gives parents access to their children’s accounts.

These commonsense measures will protect children from the negative effects of social media, and passed the Utah Legislature with widespread bipartisan support.

After he signed the bill, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said,“There is no other industry where we allow 14-year-olds to contract with major corporations to use their data for anything they want. We just don’t do this. We’re going to look back 10 years from now and think, what did we do? We destroyed a generation of kids with this stuff.”

We know that social media is bad for us and especially for our young people. Now it is time to do something about it.

We have government-enforced age limits on alcohol and cigarettes because we know they are harmful, especially for young users. There is no reason not to treat social media in the same way.

Utah expects legal challenges to the bill, and issues of free speech are almost certain to be raised. But don’t forget: Freedom of expression existed before social media. The social networks may provide a louder megaphone, but speech was free before Facebook, and it will remain free even if we limit children’s access to social media. We do not need social media to enjoy free speech, but we do need to protect young people from a business model that thrives on destroying their mental health.

It is time for Missouri to follow Utah’s lead and protect our teenagers from social media. We know it is bad for us. Let’s do something about it.