Highlighting ongoing conversations in Montana to address safeguards on social media use for minors, Senator Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, added, “The Interim Energy and Technology Committee is working on bipartisan legislation that states tech companies cannot utilize addictive processes that are in-place and designed to get a child on the phone by way of a notification, feed them content that is interesting, keep their eyes on it through infinite scrolling, just to them have them produce their own content for likes and engagement. This is all by design, and it is for tech companies to profit off children.”
He continued, “So, how do we regulate this but still allow innovation? We’re at the point where innovation is equal to an addictive substance, not something that is bettering society. And when it comes to protecting children, that line has been crossed.”
During the press conference, the governor mentioned recent proposals from Meta that add new safeguards and parental controls for users under 18-years-old including a two-hour daily limit that’s cumulative across Facebook and Instagram, a “Nightmode” feature that limits teen access to their feed, stories, and reels between midnight and 6 a.m., the ability to disable autoplay, and several other measures.
Gov. Gianforte called these measures good first steps and concluded the press conference by saying, “Our kids deserve the opportunity to grow up, build relationships, learn, and experience childhood without an algorithm controlling their attention. They deserve our protection, and parents deserve our support. Working with our partners in the legislature in the upcoming session, I’m optimistic about the changes we can make to address some of these big issues.”
Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Susie Hedalen added, “My job as the superintendent at the Office of Public Instruction is to make sure that we have resources for our educator and our administrators in Montana. I look forward to working on legislation and seeing anyway that we can partner to keep our students safe and help them be focused and engaged in instruction during their day.”
