Verbal Testimony in Support of the Stop the Harms from Addictive Social Media Act, Maggee Hangge, Minnesota Catholic Conference

RE: Stop the Harms from Addictive Social Media (H.F. 4138)

Chair O’Driscoll, Chair Koegel, and members of the committee:

My name is Maggee Hangge, and I am here from the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, to share our support for House File 4138. Please vote yes.

Social media platforms are designed to addict. Cited in the U.S. Surgeon General’s report from 2023, nearly one third social media use may be attributed to self-control challenges.[1] People are staying plugged in longer and more often than they intend—the platforms’ business models are working, but not to our benefit.

We should not sit back and let Big Tech capture the lives of our children.

This bill is not about age verification, it does not require young users to provide their own personal data, and it does not ban children from social media. Nor is it focused on the content that the users see while they are online.

This bill is focused on eliminating the addictive design of social media products while giving parents a tool to help keep their kids safe online.

Nowhere else do we allow minors to enter a contract. Yet they are allowed to sign over their data to Big Tech, and sometimes without their parents even knowing. The kids, then, become the products off which the platforms can profit. When a platform or experience is free, the user is the product.

While they may suggest otherwise, social media companies are already incentivized to determine key demographics of their users—age, location, and even interests—so that they can sell targeted advertisements at a higher premium. Instead of using this technology to lure young users into staying on the product longer, they could employ that same age estimation technology to help identify child users and ensure they have parental consent to be on the platform.

Part of keeping kids safe online includes involving the parents. When a parent can consent to their child’s account creation, they are informed about where their child is spending her time and can have tailored conversations about online safety.

Just this week, a jury in New Mexico established that Meta’s platforms are not safe for kids and are instead designed to exploit them. Similarly in Los Angeles, a jury found that YouTube and Instagram are addictive by design, which is harming kids. At the legislative level, Minnesota, too, can step out and urge these platforms to protect youth online by passing House File 4138. Thank you for your consideration.

Maggee Hangge, [email protected]

1 https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-health-social-media-advisory.pdf, page 9