Bucks Co. officials team with students for social media bill aimed at cyberbullying

Students in Bucks County want legislation aimed at helping protect kids activity on social media.

In fact, students at Tamanend Middle School in Warrington created an award-winning video on the problem, calling for legislators to act.

And, Bucks County State Rep. Brian Munroe (D-144th dist.) leapt at the chance to work with the students.

"Make no mistake this was a cry for help for a generation suffering the brunt of social media's impact: soaring rates of anxiety, self esteem issues and depression all while social media companies rake in the profits with minimal accountability," Monroe said of the video.

In unveiling the bill at an event on Wednesday morning, Munroe said the video that the students created for C-SPAN's StudentCam competition, showed him the need for such legislation.

Their collaboration led to the creation of House Bill 2017, which would:

• Require social media companies to monitor the chats of two or more minors on the platform and notify parents or legal guardians of flagged sensitive or graphic content.
• Strengthen proof of age verification on social media platforms by requiring consent from a parent or legal guardian for anyone under 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 the age of 18 and allow any individual to request the deletion of data that was mined while they were under the age of 18.

The bill would also implement fines if any social media companies violate these terms.

Fines, he noted, would range from $2,500 to $50,000 depending on how many times a company violates the terms of the proposed bill.

Munroe said that the moves are intended to help "empower" parents in protecting their children online, giving them tools to fight problems that arise on social media, like cyberbullying.

"Bullying does not stop at the end of the school day. That bullying goes home to their kitchens, to their bedrooms and sometimes greets them at 3 o'clock in the morning," said Munroe.

Max Jin, one of the students who helped create the legislation -- and, who is now a sophomore at Central Bucks High School South -- said that it can be difficult to protect students and children from cyberbullying as the internet is used so regularly in anyone's life.

""I'm not sure it's necessarily easy to completely eliminate social media if one is a victim of cyberbullying," he said. "Because we've become so interconnected on the internet nowadays that it becomes necessary for a lot of activities and connections online."

But, he said that he hopes this legislation could make an impact.

Fellow Central Bucks High School South students Luka Jonjic and Dylan Schwartz, also collaborated in creating the bill.

Protecting kids online and supporting their mental health from issues that could be caused -- or exacerbated by -- social media is an issue that Bucks County officials have been trying to tackle for sometime.

Last year, officials filed a lawsuit against many social media companies citing mental health concerns.