A new poll from Cygnal shows strong support for a ban on social media for minors.
Survey results released Sunday by Cygnal show support across the political spectrum for a proposal to block anyone under age 16 from keeping or maintaining social media accounts. The poll found more than 67% of voters favor the legislation (HB 1).
The support for the bill was highest among Republicans, with 79% supporting the legislation. But 64% of independents and 57% of Democrats also favor the bill.
Moreover, the poll found support to be intense, with 47% of voters saying they strongly support the policy proposal.
Among parents, pollsters found 69% support, and 51% strong support, for the bill.
The poll was conducted for the political committee Florida Right Direction. Pollsters surveyed 800 likely General Election voters and reported a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
"HB 1 has a wide range of support with conservatives strongly backing the bill, while Democrats and Independents also consistently support it throughout the informed messages series of positions for and against the legislation," said Brent Buchanan, pollster and president at Cygnal.
The survey informed voters that the House passed a bill that "would require social media companies to prohibit children under the age of 16 from creating social media accounts and to terminate existing accounts for children under 16." The House passed such a bill in January and the Senate is ready to consider it on the floor this week. The bill has been a priority for House Speaker Paul Renner.
At the foundation of that opinion appears to be a widely felt belief children use social media too often. About 91% of all voters feel children are on social media too much, compared to 82% who feel the same about adults. About 90% of parents feel that way about child social media use.
"This is a problem that Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters can all agree on," Buchanan wrote in a polling memo.
Pollsters also tested how various messaging both in favor and against the bill impacted public opinion, including that social media hurts kids and that the bill could trample on parental rights.
The most effective criticism of the bill appeared to be that it trampled on free speech. Almost 29% of voters said they were less likely to support the bill after hearing that argument, though more than 15% said they felt more supportive, and almost 30% said it made no difference to them.
As for arguments for the policy, messaging that social media causes real harm to children resonated with voters. Explaining that social media hurts minors' mental health made almost 61% of voters more supportive of the bill. Hearing that it causes girls to feel hopeless, and even suicidal, had a similar impact on voters' feelings on the policy.
Florida Right Direction HB1 Polling Memo_final by Jacob Ogles on Scribd
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