Is Phone Addiction the New ‘Normal Childhood?’

A recently signed law by California Governor Gavin Newsom is attempting to address children’s social media dependence by prohibiting social media platforms from knowingly providing addictive content to minors without parental consent during school hours and at night. California is right to address the issue of children’s social media addiction, but this law will do little to protect our kids.

Last year, Gallup found that over half of U.S. teens ages 13-19 spend an average of 4.8 hours a day on social media. Female teens spend an average of 5.3 each day on social media compared to the 4.4 hours average of teen males. A Common Sense Media Study found that 97% of kids 11 through 17 years old use their phones at school. The most popular usage among teenagers is TikTok at 32%, YouTube at 26%, and gaming at 17%.

Many teachers and parents believe the constant access to social media and messaging services cell phones provide is a driving factor in factor in a student’s educational, social, and mental health problems.

However, according to California’s Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, it will be, “… unlawful … to provide an addictive feed to a user, unless the operator does not have actual knowledge that the user is a minor…has reasonably determined that the user is not a minor; or has obtained verifiable parental consent to provide an addictive feed to the user who is a minor.”

California doesn’t think kids are smart enough to get around this. Hint: they are.

The California Attorney General has until January 1, 2027, to figure out how to develop the regulation and enforcement on age access and parental consent. Back in the early 2000’s kids just had to give a false birthdate to get access to Myspace and Facebook. I know because I’m one of them. While technology has certainly advanced to the point where social media companies can accurately guess the age of the user based on what content they follow, the part of the law that says “unless the operator does not have actual knowledge that the user is a minor” gives a loophole to companies to play dumb.

If big tech is unaware a child is a child, they are off the hook. What’s also concerning is what information they might have to request from all users to verify their ages. Drivers’ licenses? Birth certificates? A DNA sample for verification? Ok, that might be a stretch, but real privacy is at stake for all social media users in California depending on what rules are proposed by the state. Kids have been creating fake IDs for decades and they will find a way around this.

Another fault of the bill is that big tech can provide unrestricted access if they are given parental consent. What will the parents have to provide to prove they are, in fact, adults? Kids have been signing permission slips from their parents for decades and they will find a way around this rule, too.

How Florida handled this issue is a bit different. Instead of making requirements of big tech and allowing big tech and kids to find ways around the law, they went straight for what holds the two together: the internet.

In May,  Florida HB 379 was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis to, “get TikTok out of schools.” This bill bans TikTok on all personal devices that use the school internet and on all devices owned or provided by schools. The bill also requires school boards to implement policies prohibiting students from connecting to any social media sites while using a school-owned computer or server, unless instructed by a teacher. But kids can get around this, too. What if kids use a hotspot or other way to connect to the internet?

Florida’s approach is an improvement to California’s when it comes to in-school social media use but it still misses the mark on the issue of just how much kids are addicted to their phones. One possible solution to this is restricting or banning phones in school altogether.

Pew Research Center’s recent study shows that an overwhelming 68% of U.S. adults support a cell phone ban for middle and high school students during class. It also shows that 65% of K-12 parents support a school cellphone ban during class.

Banning or restricting phones at school is gaining popularity because it can be implemented right away and you don’t have to regulate big tech. You disrupt the addiction at the source by taking the phone out of the student’s hands.

Some school districts are starting to implement a ban on cell phone use during classes or during the entire day.  In June, Los Angeles, which is the second largest school district in the country, voted to ban cell phone use for the entire school day.  Several governors have called on schools in their states to restrict cell phones during class, and more school districts are falling in line.

No amount of government regulation can end this addiction completely. However, banning phones in schools is a common sense policy—one that might just help kids experience freedom and break the addiction cycle beyond the classroom.