ATLANTA — How online platforms can affect our children, and what can be done about it, brought state leaders together on Tuesday.
Channel 2’s Lori Wilson was at the meeting, where the Georgia General Assembly’s Blue Ribbon Committee worked on how they plan to make a difference.
At the meeting, subject matter experts and lawmakers discussed how spending time online, especially on platforms like Roblox, YouTube and TikTok, is affect our children.
Michael Schlep, a YouTuber and online safety advocate, shared the story of how he was groomed by a predator while playing Roblox as a child.
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He said the situation led him to try to take his own life. now he works to educate parents about online platforms and help get online predators arrested.
“The free reign that has been given to a lot of these bad actors, where they can go into spaces and communicate with children so easily,” means there need to be more safeguard, Schlep told Channel 2 Action News.
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Schlep said some of the content that can be found on these platforms, by children, would make any parent take their children offline from it almost immediately.
State Rep. Rob Clifton, who headed the meeting, said the issue of online safety for children was person for him, and something he says state lawmakers should help regulate.
“At a state level, I do think we can do more,” Clifton said. “I don’t wait on the federal government to do anything.”
Other speakers at the Blue Ribbon meeting discussed how online forums have become extremely divisive, and how spending too much time online, no matter the content, can lead to online addiction, sleep issues and depression.
“I believe adolescents should be protected at all costs and as I look at my kids as they continue to grow up, that’s what I’m here for,” Clifton said. “I’m here to protect our kids and make Georgia a safer place.”
The committee said their members will take all of the things they learned and information they received to come up with online safety legislation for next year’s session.
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