FILE: Attorney General of Utah Sean Reyes arrives onstage to pre-record his address to the Republican National Convention at the Mellon Auditorium on August 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes joined with 43 other State Attorneys General who are concerned that the TikTok and Snapchat social media apps are not doing enough to protect children.
In the letter, they accused both platforms of not effectively working with parental control apps. These apps to provide parents with more oversight of their children’s use of the platforms.
“There are a number of other platforms including Meta, Instagram, and Twitter that have measures in place that up to this point TikTok and Snapchat have not adopted,” Reyes said on KSL at Night.
“We have predators out there who are looking and waiting to exploit children through whatever means possible in terms of social media,” Reyes said. “We want to make sure … that parents and families have as many tools as possible at their disposal.”
Reyes also said parents need to be proactive in making sure kids are using social media safely.
If parents aren’t even making the attempt, then they are almost giving up and they are leaving children in the deepest waters without a life preserver” Reyes said.
In the letter, the AGs warned that children and teenagers are constantly subjected to online dangers. These include cyberbullying, drug use, and sexual predation.
They argued the content can “seriously harm a child’s view of a healthy relationship and can help perpetuate domestic abuse and human trafficking.”
However, they did acknowledge that both Tiktok and Snapchat have taken steps to provide more options to parents.
The letter did not endorse any particular parental control app.
Listen to the full interview of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes on KSL at Night below.