88R11184 BPG-D     By: Patterson H.C.R. No. 46       CONCURRENT RESOLUTION          WHEREAS, Scores of experts have warned the U.S. Congress   about the pressing need to protect children and adolescents from   social media harms; and          WHEREAS, Over the course of five hearings, the Senate   Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data   Security received abundant testimony about the severe impacts   social media platforms can have on brain development and mental   health; problems noted by experts include hazardous substance use,   eating disorders, bullying, anxiety, depression, and self-harm;   Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen provided a trove of the company's   internal research showing that its products have negative impacts   on children, especially teenage girls, and that the company   downplayed this troubling information and made but minimal efforts   to mitigate damage; she implored Congress to take action; and          WHEREAS, In a June 2022 letter, American Psychological   Association Services, Mental Health America, and more than 100   other organizations told the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce,   Science, and Transportation that the growing mental health crisis   among America's youth is exacerbated by social media platforms   designed in ways that increase exposure to harmful content and   encourage unhealthy patterns of use; adolescence involves   neurological changes that promote cravings for social attention,   feedback, and status, the letter stated, and young users can find it   difficult to abstain from social media, even when they recognize   that it is making them feel terrible about themselves; and          WHEREAS, The internet is a comparatively new form of media,   and during its short history, Congress has struggled to understand   the full breadth of its impact and determine how best to prevent   negative consequences; though it aimed to safeguard those under the   age of 13 with the passage of the Children's Online Privacy   Protection Act of 1998, Congress has yet to address the many issues   that have arisen in the intervening quarter century; and          WHEREAS, Crafting legislation to prevent children from   accessing harmful content has proven a particularly challenging   endeavor, given the need to accommodate First Amendment concerns;   laws targeting specific categories of speech based on content are   subject to the exacting "strict scrutiny" standard of judicial   review, and the courts have previously struck down as   unconstitutional statutes seeking to criminalize the provision of   harmful internet content to minors; however, federal case law does   recognize certain circumstances in which Congress may restrict   children's access to particular types of information, depending on   such factors as existence of a demonstrable harm and assurances   that any restriction does not encumber more constitutionally   protected speech than is necessary; and          WHEREAS, When social media platforms fail to take   responsibility for the harms they cause, it is incumbent upon   lawmakers to step in, and although balancing legal protections with   First Amendment considerations will require extreme delicacy, the   health, safety, and well-being of children and adolescents are too   important to leave to the vagaries of algorithms designed to   protect profits, not children; now, therefore, be it          RESOLVED, That the 88th Legislature of the State of Texas   hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to pass   legislation to protect children from the harms of social media;   and, be it further          RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official   copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to   the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the   Senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the   Texas delegation to the Congress with the request that this   resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a   memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.