The Online Battle for Our Children

As parents, we all know how quickly things can change. One minute our children are asking us to watch a cartoon, and the next they have a phone, a social media account, and access to a world that is far bigger than anything we can see from the kitchen table.

I have watched that change in my own family. And as a parent, I know the feeling of wondering what our children are seeing online, who they are talking to, and how much time they are spending on a screen. It can be difficult to keep up, especially when the technology is changing faster than most of us can.

That is why last week's House Public Health Committee hearing was so important.

There was testimony about children spending as much as 14 hours a day on their phones. Witnesses also shared about the impact of excessive screen time and social media on young people, including children who are struggling with loneliness and a growing feeling that they have nothing to be proud of.

Those are not problems we can simply accept as the price of growing up in a digital world.

Social media algorithms are dangerous and constantly learning. They track what a user watches, what they skip, what they return to, what they react to, and how long they stay engaged. Then they use that information to determine what appears on the screen next.

That is powerful technology, and when it is aimed at a child's developing mind, we need to take that seriously. These companies have invested enormous resources into understanding attention and behavior because the longer someone stays on a platform, the more valuable that user becomes.

Our children should not have to fight a billion-dollar industry for control of their own attention.

And Texas is already taking action. Just this past week, Attorney General Ken

Paxton announced that Meta will pay more than $1 billion to the State of Texas and implement new protections for children as part of a settlement over the company's practices involving young users.

Under the agreement, Meta will implement stricter age verification, limit teens to two hours of daily use, disable notifications by default during school hours, and create a nighttime mode restricting access.

That is a significant step, but I don't think any parent should look at this and think, "Great, the problem is solved."

The fact that Texas had to take legal action in the first place tells us something important. These companies are not going to put the safety of our children ahead of their business model unless they are held accountable.

But here is the good news: parents do not have to wait for any of that. Before government can act, before a company changes its policies, we can step in.

We can start tonight, checking our child's screen time, looking at the apps on their phone, asking what they are watching, knowing who they are talking to, and looking at what the algorithm is recommending to them.

And as your representative, I will continue looking at what we can do legislatively to give parents more tools and hold these companies accountable. The discussion in the Public Health committee last week made clear that there is more work to do, and I intend to keep pushing until our kids are safe.

Thank you for reading my weekly column! Make sure you stay connected and informed by calling our Capitol office at (512) 463-0600 or by following my social media page at www.facebook.com/AngeliaOrrForTX

— Your Conservative State Representative Angelia Orr