AG Ellison joins bipartisan coalition urging increased social media parental control

(FOX 9) - Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison has joined a coalition of 44 other attorneys general that have sent a letter to social media platforms TikTok and Snapchat to urge them to allow parents the ability to monitor their children’s social media usage.

According to the announcement, parental control apps would help protect children from online threats.

"Our children are unable on their own to navigate the real and potential harms of social media usage – and these harms can be very serious, up to and including self-harm," Ellison said in a statement. "I’ll keep using the power of my office to fight to keep our children safe."

Attorney General Ellison has previously expressed concern about the negative impacts of social media platforms on younger Minnesotans. 

In May 2021, Ellison joined a bipartisan coalition of 44 attorneys general urging Facebook to abandon its plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under age 13. 

In November 2021, he joined attorneys general from across the country in announcing an investigation into Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, for providing and promoting Instagram to children. 

Earlier this month, he joined a nationwide investigation of attorneys general from around the country into an investigation into TikTok’s for providing and promoting its social media platform to children and young adults while use is associated with physical and mental-health harms.