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Congress wants to spend $95 million to study how gadgets and social media affects children.
The proposal for the Children and Media Research Advancement Act, or CAMRA Act, was introduced Thursday in the U.S. Senate. A bipartisan group is behind the bill, so it might actually have a chance of passing.
SEE ALSO: We don’t give kids free access to junk food. We shouldn’t give them free access to the iPhone.
The bill is not new. Back in 2004, then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman wanted to study the effects of electronic media on the youth. It fizzled out. The same thing happened when a version of the bill was introduced again in 2007 — just a few months before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Read more…
More about Children, Congress, Social Media, Devices, and Tech Addiction
View More Why a $95 million bill to study tech’s effects on kids might actually pass this time
I know intimately that if we want to achieve tech-life balance, people must start taking responsibility for their choices. No one is forcing consumers to buy an iPhone, use Facebook, stare at Twitch or masturbate to porn. Every one of those actions is a choice we make, and it’s nearly impossible to help someone who doesn’t want help. 
The president of the United States cannot seem to stop tweeting. Despite stern advice from his advisors and opprobrium from the world, not a day goes by that POTUS doesn’t escalate some tension in 280 characters. Each of us can relate to making a social media post we regret later and vowing never to do it again — but few of us do it on such a public scale. But is it addiction?