There’s This Thing Called Parenting, California. Look It Up.

OMG.  This is the dumbest thing I’ve read all week. 

According to the sourcelink, CA state senators are gonna vote on a bill shortly that will allow parents to sue Instagram or Tiktok or other social media platforms for up to 25k if their kids become addicted to them.  I’m not making this up.  This bill has actually already passed the state Assembly.

From the source:

The bill defines ‘addiction’ as kids under 18 who are both harmed – either physically, mentally, emotionally, developmentally or materially – and who want to stop or reduce how much time they spend on social media but they can’t because they are preoccupied or obsessed with it.

What a bunch of utter bullcrap. You know what parents can do if their kid wants to reduce the time they spend on social media?  TAKE THEIR DEVICE AWAY.  Or remove the social apps.  Or just freaking BE A PARENT IN GENERAL.

The two clowns responsible for this dumbass bill are Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham and Chad Mayes.  Look them up.  Write to them to tell them that they’re complete morons.

What will happen if this bill gets passed is that TikTok and IG and others will just disallow CA kids from using their platforms.  They’ll create some sort of disclaimer that says you’re not allowed to be on the app if you’re younger than, say, 18, and they’ll absolve themselves of responsibility beyond that.  WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY SHOULD DO, because this entire thing is stupid AF.

Listen – social media is poison for kids in many ways.  I’m not denying that.  But ultimately parents are responsible for monitoring their kids’ usage of those platforms.  The bill doesn’t apply to Netflix or other streaming services, because why would you expect CA to be in any way consistent about anything?

The bill applies just to those social media companies that had at least $100M in revenues last year, because CA only wants to hurt companies that can afford it.  The addiction part is really irrelevant, you see.  It’s about who can afford to pay giant fines.

Now. there ARE a couple ways that tech firms can worm their way out of paying the fines or facing other liability.  They can “remove features deemed addictive to kids” by April 1. They can also do “regular audits of their practices.”

I couldn’t roll my eyes any harder if I tried.

Another assembly member (Democrat Ken Cooley) said that while he isn’t normally a fan of bills that make it easier for people to get all sue-happy, this situation is different.  “We have to do something,’ he said. ‘If it doesn’t turn out right we can modify as we go along.”

Great plan, Ken.  Just throw some sh*t on the wall and see if it sticks.

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