California Governor Gavin Newsom said he wants to impose stricter limits on children using smartphones in schools, citing US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s recent call to protect young people from the potential mental health harms of social media .
Murthy published an op-ed in the New York Times on Monday in which he urged Congress to require a tobacco-like warning label on social media platforms to “remind parents and teens that social media has not been proven safe ”.
In a statement to NBC News, Newsom repeated the surgeon general’s assertion that “social media is harming the mental health of our young people.” He cited one account which he passed in 2019 that gave California school districts the authority to limit or ban smartphone use during the school day, barring special circumstances and emergencies.
“Building on legislation I signed in 2019, I look forward to working with the Legislature to restrict smartphone use during the school day,” Newsom said. “When children and teenagers are at school, they should focus on their studies – not on screens.”
The news was first reported by POLITICO.
Newsom’s office did not detail what kind of restrictions he is planning to implement, but said the administration is reviewing several proposals that will be introduced in the legislature this year.
The governor’s statement comes on the same day that the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the country with more than 420,000 students, voted to ban the use of cell phones and social media in its schools.
In 2022, Newsom will also signed a controversial bill which implemented some of the most stringent privacy requirements for children in the country – requiring companies that “develop and provide online services, products or features that children are likely to access” comply with specific safeguards that protect users’ data and privacy under 18 years.
California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, which was scheduled to go into effect next month, was blocked by a federal judge last year, after technology industry group NetChoice processed based on law that allegedly violates the First Amendment. California Attorney General Rob Bonta appealed the injunction while the lawsuit remains ongoing.
California is among a number of states that in recent years have sought to legislate restrictions on smartphone use in classrooms, as parents and teachers across the country express growing concern about distractions and potential harm from the devices.
Indiana approved a law in March, requiring schools to adopt policies restricting cell phone use during term time, while Tennessee It is Kansas has failed to advance similar bills in recent months. About that, Oklahoma, Vermont It is Virginia also introduced new legislation this year aimed at keeping phones out of schools.
Last year, Florida became the first in the country to completely ban cell phone use during class and block access to social media on district Wi-Fi.
Even without mandates at the state or federal level, schools in dozens of states have already spent millions on sealed fabric bags meant to lock away students’ phones during class.
In recent years, a growing body of research has sought to understand the impact of smartphones and screen time on young people, with many studies finding correlations with harmful behavioral and psychological effects. Last fall, a Common Sense Media report found that children and teens receive hundreds — or, for some, thousands — of phone notifications a day, most of them social media alerts.
In his opinion essay on Monday, Murthy wrote that he and his wife are already worried about how they will approach social media use for their two young children.
“There is no seatbelt for parents to fasten, no helmet to strap into place, no assurance that trusted experts have investigated and ensured that these platforms are safe for our children,” Murthy wrote. “There are just parents and their kids, trying to figure it out on their own, going up against some of the best product engineers and most resourceful companies in the world.”
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