Bill Text: TX HCR46 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Urging Congress to pass legislation to protect children from the harms of social media.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-05-12 - Referred to State Affairs [HCR46 Detail]
Download: Texas-2023-HCR46-Comm_Sub.html
| 88R11184 BPG-D | ||
| By: Patterson, González of El Paso | H.C.R. No. 46 | |
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| WHEREAS, Scores of experts have warned the U.S. Congress | ||
| about the pressing need to protect children and adolescents from | ||
| social media harms; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Over the course of five hearings, the Senate | ||
| Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data | ||
| Security received abundant testimony about the severe impacts | ||
| social media platforms can have on brain development and mental | ||
| health; problems noted by experts include hazardous substance use, | ||
| eating disorders, bullying, anxiety, depression, and self-harm; | ||
| Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen provided a trove of the company's | ||
| internal research showing that its products have negative impacts | ||
| on children, especially teenage girls, and that the company | ||
| downplayed this troubling information and made but minimal efforts | ||
| to mitigate damage; she implored Congress to take action; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In a June 2022 letter, American Psychological | ||
| Association Services, Mental Health America, and more than 100 | ||
| other organizations told the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, | ||
| Science, and Transportation that the growing mental health crisis | ||
| among America's youth is exacerbated by social media platforms | ||
| designed in ways that increase exposure to harmful content and | ||
| encourage unhealthy patterns of use; adolescence involves | ||
| neurological changes that promote cravings for social attention, | ||
| feedback, and status, the letter stated, and young users can find it | ||
| difficult to abstain from social media, even when they recognize | ||
| that it is making them feel terrible about themselves; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The internet is a comparatively new form of media, | ||
| and during its short history, Congress has struggled to understand | ||
| the full breadth of its impact and determine how best to prevent | ||
| negative consequences; though it aimed to safeguard those under the | ||
| age of 13 with the passage of the Children's Online Privacy | ||
| Protection Act of 1998, Congress has yet to address the many issues | ||
| that have arisen in the intervening quarter century; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Crafting legislation to prevent children from | ||
| accessing harmful content has proven a particularly challenging | ||
| endeavor, given the need to accommodate First Amendment concerns; | ||
| laws targeting specific categories of speech based on content are | ||
| subject to the exacting "strict scrutiny" standard of judicial | ||
| review, and the courts have previously struck down as | ||
| unconstitutional statutes seeking to criminalize the provision of | ||
| harmful internet content to minors; however, federal case law does | ||
| recognize certain circumstances in which Congress may restrict | ||
| children's access to particular types of information, depending on | ||
| such factors as existence of a demonstrable harm and assurances | ||
| that any restriction does not encumber more constitutionally | ||
| protected speech than is necessary; and | ||
| WHEREAS, When social media platforms fail to take | ||
| responsibility for the harms they cause, it is incumbent upon | ||
| lawmakers to step in, and although balancing legal protections with | ||
| First Amendment considerations will require extreme delicacy, the | ||
| health, safety, and well-being of children and adolescents are too | ||
| important to leave to the vagaries of algorithms designed to | ||
| protect profits, not children; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the 88th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
| hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to pass | ||
| legislation to protect children from the harms of social media; | ||
| and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
| copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
| the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the | ||
| Senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the | ||
| Texas delegation to the Congress with the request that this | ||
| resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
| memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. | ||
