Liberal Democrat Joins Republicans on Anti-LGBTQ Bill

Senator Chris Murphy (D) is leading an effort to regulate social media companies with the stated goal of reducing social media’s effect of negatively impacting young people’s mental health. Murphy’s goal is admirable, but his bill would exacerbate the problem he claims he’s trying to solve.

The pinnacle of this debate over whether we should regulate minors’ social media use came with the thud of medical authority. Earlier this year, the Surgeon General released a report documenting the potential benefits and the potential harms of social media. Policymakers have been focused on the ladder. Senator Murphy, along with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, introduced a bill that would address this by restricting access to social media for minors with strict age verification. In short, the bill bans children under 13 from using social media and children under 18 unless they have parental consent. The thought behind the policy is that social media is addictive and causes depression among kids, so we should restrict it. As you can probably imagine by now, I find this approach to be highly counterproductive and will likely be quite harmful.

In the Surgeon General’s report, Dr. Vivek Murthy underscores the potential benefits of social media for members of marginalized groups including the LGBTQ+ community. Murthy explains that “studies have shown that social media may support the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender, queer, intersex and other youths by enabling peer connection, identity development and management, and social support.” This was unsurprising and deeply affirming to me. As a queer kid, I wrestled with crippling fears of social isolation if I was ever outed. Despite having a supportive family, I walked into middle school surrounded by people asking if I was gay, judging me for having gay voice, and calling me slurs in the locker rooms and the gymnasium. I was a depressed queer kid that could have easily not made it to adulthood without social media. I remember vividly coming home from school and opening Youtube to see LGBTQ+ creators like Tyler Oakley talking openly about their identity and self-love. These creators taught me that who I am is beautiful, and even though society is often unfair, it’s worth it to embrace who you are and live your most authentic self. Access to these creators saved my life and the lives of countless other LGBTQ+ people who grew up in the digital age. If Senator Murphy’s bill passes, most of these kids won’t have access to social media and will lose out on potentially lifesaving interventions. That means more suicides. Suicides for kids like me.

This may seem like an attack on Senator Murphy, but I’ve long been an admirer of his. That’s probably why this bill stings so much. I’ve looked up to Senator Murphy for his dedication to ending gun violence and his work to end the war in Yemen. I’ve thought highly of him as someone who genuinely cared about human rights. A few years ago, I even got to meet him.

But here’s the thing. In restricting social media use for minors, this bill pits LGBTQ+ children and children from other marginalized groups against cisgender, heterosexual, white, U.S. born children. We don’t need to do any of that.

There’s an obvious middle ground that involves strengthening age verification and allowing for controls to prohibit sexually explicit content to those under 13 and to ban any content that promotes self-harm. This could be enforced through unscheduled regulator visits to content moderation offices in these tech companies and through quotas of content moderation agents to assure staffing is adequate to enforce the law. I would be even willing to discuss allowing children to use social media, but capping usage at 90 minutes in a 12-hour day. The potential harmful effects of social media largely center around excessive usage. We could just enforce moderation instead of enacting prohibition.

I completely sympathize with any lawmaker concerned about rising rates of depression and suicide among young people, and I think it’s of the utmost importance that Congress address this issue. I would argue that reforming our land use code and transportation infrastructure to allow kids to play outside and foster friendships at walkable, third spaces in their communities would go a long way. The way we design our neighborhoods can dramatically impact the mental health of people of all ages. If you’re interested in collaborating legislatively to address mental health through land use reform, my DMs are open.