Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, the Republican Party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate, says it’s time for federal action to address algorithms that expose children to harmful social media content.
“It’s very clear ‘Big Tech’ hasn’t been doing that on their own,” Hinson said this weekend. “We’re going to have to tell them how to do this because their job is to get kids addicted to the scroll.”
Hinson invited five parents to a discussion in Ankeny on Saturday morning, to air concerns about things like chatbots and online games that appeal to kids, but can be accessed by adult predators. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who joined the group, said smart phones have turned into portals that transport “utter garbage.”
“Ashley, I have joked that if you ever want to feel young, just get elected to the U.S. Senate. The median age is about 106,” Cruz said. “…That’s actually relevant to this topic, because I actually think we need more senators who are parents of kids right now.”
Cruz has two teenage daughters and Hinson has two teenage sons. Hinson and Cruz say they want to see evidence TikTok’s new American owner has changed the algorithms which were pushing harmful content when TikTok was a Chinese-owned company. “China was controlling that algorithm and was deciding what our teenagers were seeing,” Hinson said and Cruz replied, “Yes,” then Hinson continued, “and in many instances they could influence and negatively influence and divide our country.”
Cruz also headlined a private fundraiser for Hinson this weekend. Hinson faces Democrat Josh Turek, a state representative from Council Bluffs, and Libertarian Thomas Laehn, the Greene County Attorney, in the race to replace Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak.