By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Stories of teen suicide fueled by social media fueled an Illinois Senate hearing Tuesday. State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) has a bill for what’s called an “age appropriate design code.” Tyler Diers represents the tech industry and says her bill is so vaguely worded that it could cover, for example, newspapers.
What’s nore, “there is a rating system on video games,” said Diers. “There is a rating system on video games,” for example, M for mature, E for everyone, “that is a rating system that is put together voluntarily by the industry, not by the government.” That setup is similar to what the movie industry has done for decades.
Rezin’s not buying it.
“We’ve all heard ‘trust us, we’ll havdle it ourselves’ before,” Rezin said, citing the tobacco and opioid industries.
Rezin says Big Tech wants young people on their sites for as long as possible.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
