Texas GOP state Rep. Jared Patterson told Newsmax on Tuesday that the bill the state House of Representatives advanced last month restricting social media for minors would "put our kids' mental health" at the forefront.
Texas House legislators last month advanced a bill that would ban children in the state from creating accounts on social media platforms and would require those platforms to impose age verification for new users.
Patterson told Newsmax's "National Report" that "this is a real life situation. Our kids are killing themselves at a clip that we've never seen before in the history of our state, and it's time that we put our kids' mental health on the same level we do their physical well-being."
He went on to say, "We have laws protecting kids" from purchasing harmful products, such as guns or tobacco, and "yet they have access to this dangerous product that the surgeon general in 2024 said is just as addictive as cigarettes."
When asked about the challenges of trying to work with major social media platforms to regulate their usage by minors, Patterson noted that "in several interim study committees, and even when I laid the bill out here in the Texas House, the social media companies neglected to even show up and answer for the harm that they've caused Texas children."
He added, "They don't even want to be a part of the process. What I'll tell you is that in this legislation, we have empowered our attorney general in the state of Texas to go after the social media companies if they have children as users on their platforms."
Patterson said, "And keep in mind, the social media companies know more about you than you know about yourself, so they know exactly who is using their platforms."
He said that the legislation will "empower the Attorney General under the laws in the state of Texas to go after them. If children access their platforms, the ball's in their court."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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