Henrico Times

HENRICO, VA – Today, Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-01) hosted a seminar in Henrico titled “Protecting Our Children from the Dangers of Social Media” to provide parents, educators, community leaders, and interested Virginia’s First District residents with information and resources to keep children safe online.

“As a father of two and the grandfather to six young children, I appreciate how social media can help keep our loved ones connected, but I’ve also witnessed it evolve into an existential threat to young Americans,” said Rep. Wittman. “Social media can serve as a thoroughfare for abusive, unhealthy, and explicit material. When this exposure to harmful content is combined with a raging youth mental health crisis, the result is a dangerous combination that could impact generations of Americans. I thank the experts who joined us today for engaging with Virginia’s First District residents, and I look forward to our continued efforts to protect our children from harmful digital content.”

The congressman was joined by several experts:

Dr. Kathryn Jones, Attending Psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital of Richmond's Virginia Treatment Center for Children

Liz Parker, Director of Student Support & Wellness at Henrico County Public Schools

Kathryn Rifenbark, Director for CyberTipline at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Throughout his time in Congress, Rep. Wittman has supported legislation to protect young Americans online:

Cosponsored the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require social media companies to:

Design platforms with kids’ safety in mind

Limit the amount of data they collect on children under 17

Give children the highest privacy settings by default

Allow independent third parties to audit their platforms for potential harm to children

Provide data for research on how social media affects children

Cosponsored Sammy’s Law, which will require social media platforms to give third-party safety applications access to data that enables parents to be alerted when children are exposed to dangerous online content.

Voted for the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which will protect American children from predatory foreign companies like TikTok that gather children’s location data, keystroke patterns, passwords, browser history, and biometrics.