EDITORIAL: Some social media boundaries to protect Colorado’s kids

Easy access to drugs and guns as well as sexual exploitation are among the many predatory influences beckoning Colorado’s kids through social media. And while parents are the ultimate arbiters and last line of defense against what their kids see online, there are some sensible steps we can take as a state to help safeguard our youth.

Senate Bill 24-158, pending in Colorado’s Legislature, offers one such sensible step — maybe even a stride — as parents push back at the global digital behemoths whose apps are on every kid’s phone. The bill sets reasonable and workable boundaries that can limit the torrents of digital pollution that inundates, and undermines, our children via social media.

The Gazette editorial board strongly supports this broadly bipartisan legislation. It passed the state Senate nearly unanimously and has been endorsed by a wide range of organizations and stakeholder groups spanning Colorado’s political and social spectrum. SB24-158 is now scheduled to make its debut in the state House on Wednesday before the House Education Committee.

The Digital Age worries parents and with good reason. Anyone with a phone can connect with the world and tap into a bottomless well of data. But as with any innovation, near-universal digital access has been a double-edged sword. Especially for kids.

Social media apps that, for better or worse, have become household names — Snapchat, TikTok, Tinder, Instagram; the list goes on — have opened the floodgates to inputs that are deluging children. And, too often, dooming them.

Children at the most vulnerable ages are accessing online illegal drug sales — pot, opioids, you name it. They are being victimized by sexual predators and sexual exploitation as never before. They are exposed to illegal firearms sales, not to mention cruelty and bullying by peers and others.

While SB24-158 won’t provide a fail-safe against those and other threats, it will compel the gigagiants of social media to take their responsibility to children more seriously. It will impose requirements on social media companies with users in Colorado to protect youth from dangerous social media activity.

The bill’s authors point out current law provides token protection and only for users under 13. It’s too easy for those youth to lie about their age and avoid even those limited precautions required by federal law for their age group.

SB 24-158 raises the age of protection to 18 and, importantly, requires age verification. It also establishes parental tools to opt out of high-risk features on social media apps. It would enable parents to prevent tracking features such as geolocation and dark patterns that manipulate kids to forgo safeguards.

Among other provisions, the bill also:

requires social media companies to submit annual reports to the Attorney General’s Office detailing their adherence to all policies and user standards, including those related to illicit substances, unlawful gun sales, and the sexual exploitation of children;

creates a timeline for social media companies to fulfill requests by law enforcement agencies for information relevant to criminal investigations;

requires social media companies to remove users who violate their policies on illicit substances, sexual exploitation of children, and firearm transactions that violate state or federal law.

Probably no law can keep kids entirely out of harm’s way in the digital space, but SB24-158 gives parents badly needed support.

Let’s ensure social media do good by bringing people together — without tearing our children apart. We urge lawmakers of both parties in the House, as well as Gov. Jared Polis, to embrace this measure for Colorado’s kids.