Why Is Arkansas Giving Google a Pass?

Parents and lawmakers are becoming keenly aware of the devastating effect that addiction to social media is having on our kids. We are seeing historic spikes in depression, anxiety, suicide ideation, and hospital visits, especially among adolescent girls.

But states are fighting back. Utah just passed its Social Media Regulation Act that gives more rights to parents to monitor their child’s social media. What’s more, the law requires that social media companies obtain age verification of its users for them to gain access, it sets a digital curfew, and prohibits platforms from using algorithmic designs and features that addict children to their products.

Parents in Arkansas also have cause to celebrate. In April, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders passed the Social Media Safety Act. The Act requires social media platforms to obtain age verification from their users and to secure express parental permission for users under 18 to open an account. The law also requires that social media companies receive express consent from a parent or guardian for anyone under the age of 18 to open an account.

According to Governor Huckabee Sanders, the law’s objective is simple and direct: “protecting our kids.” Indeed, there is much to applaud in this law. It, like Utah’s, represents yet another bipartisan proposal aimed at protecting our children from Big Tech’s addictive and, at times, fatally harmful social media services. Unfortunately, there’s one big hole in Arkansas’s law: it doesn’t apply to all tech companies. The law certainly includes Meta and its subsidiaries, Facebook and Instagram—but it exempts Amazon’s Twitch and Google’s YouTube.

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