California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he wants to impose stricter restrictions on children using smartphones in schools, citing U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s call to protect young people from the potential mental health harms of social media.
Monday, Murthy The New York Times published an opinion piece Calls on Congress to require tobacco-style warning labels on social media platforms to “remind parents and teens that social media is not safe.”
In a statement to NBC News, Newsom echoed the surgeon general’s claim that “social media is harming the mental health of our young people.” quoted a bill it agreed in 2019 to authorize school districts in California to limit or ban smartphone use during the school day, except in special circumstances and emergencies.
“Building on the legislation I signed in 2019, I look forward to working with the Legislature to limit smartphone use during the school day,” Newsom said. “When children and teenagers are at school, they should focus on their studies, not their screens.”
It was news This was first reported by POLITICO.
Newsom’s office did not elaborate on what restrictions he plans to implement, but said the administration is considering several proposals moving forward in the Legislature this year.
The governor’s announcement comes a day after the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district with more than 420,000 students, voted to ban cell phone and social media use in schools. The resolution calls for the district to create a policy that will be implemented next January, a district spokesperson confirmed.
Newsom in 2022 signed the controversial bill which implements the strictest privacy requirements for children in the country – requiring businesses that “develop and provide online services, products or features that can be accessed by children” to adhere to specific safeguards that protect the information and privacy of users under the age of 18.
Scheduled to go into effect next month was the California Age Appropriate Design Code Act blocked by a federal judge after tech industry group NetChoice last year sued Under a law that allegedly violates the First Amendment. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has appealed the original decision as the lawsuit continues.
California is one of a number of states in recent years looking into legislation to limit smartphone use in classrooms, according to parents and teachers across the country. increased anxiety about the distractions and potential harms of devices.
Indiana passed the law In March, it requires schools to adopt policies that limit cell phone use during class Tennessee and Kansas has failed to advance similar bills in recent months. In the meantime, Oklahoma, Vermont and Virginia It also introduced new legislation this year aimed at keeping phones out of schools.
Florida last year was the first in the country completely ban cell phone use during class and block access to social media on district Wi-Fi.
Dozens of states already have schools, even without a state or federal mandate spent millions on sealed cloth bags aimed at shutting down students’ phones during class.
In recent years, a growing body of research has attempted to understand the impact of smartphones and screen time on youth with multiple studies. finding a connection with harmful behavioral and psychological effects. Last fall, A A report by Common Sense Media found that children and teenagers receive hundreds, and for some thousands, of phone notifications a day, most of which are social media alerts.
In Monday’s essay, Murthy wrote that he and his wife are already worried about how to use social media for their two young children.
“There is no seatbelt for parents to click, no helmet to wear, no assurance that trusted experts have researched and ensured that these platforms are safe for our children,” Murthy said. “It’s just parents and their kids trying to figure it out on their own, fighting against the best product engineers and the best-resourced companies in the world.”