{"id":16424,"date":"2025-12-09T11:02:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rahm-emanuel-says-u-s-should-follow-australias-youth-social-media-ban\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T11:02:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:02:55","slug":"rahm-emanuel-says-u-s-should-follow-australias-youth-social-media-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rahm-emanuel-says-u-s-should-follow-australias-youth-social-media-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Rahm Emanuel says U.S. should follow Australia’s youth social media ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a presidential run, is pushing for the United States to follow Australia’s lead in banning children under 16 from most social media. <\/p>\n

Alarmed by the addictive nature of social media apps and the attendant health<\/a> and safety risks for young users, Emanuel wants to amp up public pressure on American lawmakers to restrict access to some of the world\u2019s most popular platforms.<\/p>\n

In a bit of irony, the potential 2028 White House hopeful plans to issue his call to action Tuesday, as Australia\u2019s ban takes effect<\/u><\/a>, in a video he\u2019ll post on his social media accounts, according to plans the Democrat shared first with Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make a choice when it comes to our adolescents: Who\u2019s going to be a kind of moral guiding light? I put my thumb on the scale for adults over algorithms,\u201d Emanuel said in an interview, accusing Big Tech of prioritizing profits over \u201cprotecting our adolescents.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest in a series of policy stances Emanuel is sharpening as the former ambassador, who worked for three Democratic presidents and was mayor of Chicago, calls out his party\u2019s messaging from education<\/u><\/a> to public safety<\/u><\/a> ahead of a critical midterm election.<\/p>\n

It also comes as Democrats are embracing social media influencers and encouraging political leaders and candidates to spend more time online to promote their messaging and reach younger voters.<\/p>\n

But Emanuel sees those as separate issues \u2014 an electoral strategy targeted toward adults over 18 versus a public health problem affecting adolescents. He likened solving it to steps he took to curb youth smoking as mayor by raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products<\/u><\/a>. And he suggested lawmakers should start with targeting three of the most popular apps among U.S. teens<\/a> \u2014 TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t lose another generation because of inaction or political gridlock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Emanuel appears to be taking a tougher stance on youth access to social media than some of his would-be rivals for the Democratic nomination \u2014 and positioning himself against the Big Tech lobby that has fiercely opposed efforts<\/u><\/a> to regulate who accesses their platforms by arguing it infringes upon free speech. As a candidate, he too received donations from tech giants, including Eric Schmidt and Sheryl Sandberg.<\/p>\n

Asked about those contributions, he said his stance now shows his independence from those firms.<\/p>\n

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bills this fall that require social media platforms to display health warning labels to minors<\/a> and require apps to check kids’ ages. Both Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have spoken out about social media’s impact on kids’ mental health.<\/p>\n

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a \u201cKids Code\u201d last year that aims to limit data tech companies can collect from children, but is mired in a legal battle<\/u><\/a>. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law in 2023 that works to ensure children are compensated<\/u><\/a> for appearing in online content.<\/p>\n

Emanuel, asked if his proposed social-media ban would be key to his platform should he run for president, said \u201canything that allows us to keep focus on improving academic standards and protecting our children on a public-health basis is going to be a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s world-first social media ban<\/u><\/a> is designed to restrict access to major social media platforms<\/a> including Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube for children under 16. And it threatens to slap their parent companies with tens of millions of dollars in fines if they don\u2019t take \u201creasonable steps\u201d to prevent youngsters\u2019 access. Tech firms had protested the measure as rushed and \u201cshort-sighted\u201d<\/u><\/a> and argued<\/u><\/a> it \u201cwill not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online.\u201d But they have already begun<\/u><\/a> deactivating accounts.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some support for a similar ban in the U.S. Nearly six in 10 voters in a Quinnipiac University poll<\/u><\/a> conducted in late 2024 said they would like to see similar age restrictions, though support was lower among those ages 18 to 34. An August POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll<\/a> of registered California voters showed 45 percent support for banning social media for kids under 16.<\/p>\n

A bipartisan group of senators \u2014 including Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who political insiders think is positioning himself for another White House run in 2028 and who has made kids\u2019 online safety a centerpiece of his stint chairing the panel<\/u><\/a> that oversees social media \u2014 introduced a bill<\/u><\/a> earlier this year that would ban children under age 13 from social media<\/u><\/a>. Emanuel said that legislation has \u201cthe right thrust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another bipartisan group of senators has reintroduced a bill<\/u><\/a> that would require social media firms to remove features that could have negative effects on youth mental health. The bill sailed through the Senate 91-3 last year but stalled in the House, and the two chambers remain at odds over the details<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amid congressional gridlock, a patchwork of primarily red states have passed laws<\/u><\/a> attempting to limit kids\u2019 access to social media by requiring parental consent and imposing digital curfews. But those efforts have drawn resistance from industry groups<\/u><\/a> representing tech giants like Meta, Alphabet and Snapchat and have been largely blocked<\/u><\/a> by courts<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, a divided panel of appeals judges last month gave Florida the go-ahead to begin enforcing a law<\/u><\/a> signed by one-time presidential aspirant, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, that bars children under age 14 from using many social media platforms and requires parental approval for those ages 14 and 15. DeSantis, who might mount another White House bid in 2028, has hailed the law<\/u><\/a> as a way of keeping children safe from online predators.<\/p>\n

Emanuel acknowledged the stiff legal challenges a sweeping social media ban could face. But he said there\u2019s a potentially \u201cwinning argument\u201d in casting the crackdowns as combating \u201ca public health issue associated with technology\u201d rather than the technology itself.<\/p>\n

Tyler Katzenberger, Andrew Atterbury and Shia Kapos contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a presidential run, is pushing for the United States to follow Australia’s lead in banning children under 16 from most social media. Alarmed by the addictive nature of social media apps and the attendant health and safety risks for young users, Emanuel wants to amp up public pressure on American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}