Munroe’s bipartisan social media bill passes House

Rep. Brian Munroe May 8, 2024 | 3:27 PM

NEWS RELEASE	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
State Rep. Brian Munroe D-Bucks www.pahouse.com/Munroe

Munroe’s bipartisan social media bill passes House

HARRISBURG, May 8 – State Rep. Brian Munroe’s bipartisan bill that he wrote with three teenagers to empower parents to help their children navigate social media passed the House today.

House Bill 2017, which passed 105-95, now heads to the Senate for consideration.

“This bill will not solve all problems with social media, but what it does do is give parents a tool to help prevent bullying and other problems associated with these platforms,” Munroe said.

Munroe crafted the legislation after meeting Max Jin, Luka Jonjic and Dylan Schwartz when they were students at Tamanend Middle School in 2023. The three, who are now students at Central Bucks High School South, won an award from C-SPAN for their documentary, America’s Silent Struggle: Social Media’s Impact on Teens’ Mental Health.

The bipartisan legislation would put the following safeguards in place:

Strengthen proof-of-age verification on social media platforms by requiring consent from a parent or legal guardian for anyone younger than 16 to open a social media account and notify parents or legal guardians if a child under 16 opens a social media account without consent.
Prohibit data mining for users under 18 and allow any individual to request the deletion of data that was mined while they were younger than 18.