Exclusive—Josh Hawley Keeps His Children off Social Media: ‘Their Business Model Is Addiction’

Appearing Friday on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), author of The Tyranny of Big Tech, explained how he and his wife do not allow their young children to utilize social media due to concern over what he described as the platforms’ addictive features.

(Listen from 12:14)

A transcript is as follows:

ALEX MARLOW: You have a young family, as do I. Have you thought about technology devices being age-restricted? I’m just getting to that point where I’m starting to think some of this stuff. Have you given that much thought?

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY: This is something that my wife and I have thought a lot about. It’s really started me getting concerned about this issue some years ago because I do have three small children. Just looking at the effects of these devices and these platforms on my young kinds, is what started us as a family about thinking about this issue and then digging into it. In our own family, I can tell you we don’t allow our small children to have these devices, they’re not on social media, we don’t allow them to be exposed to these platforms. I think that is an important choice we made as a family, and I think every parent has to consider how control they’re giving to these tech companies by allowing them to track their children and allow them to build information about their children.

I’ve also proposed some limits to the addictive features that these companies use. Their business model is addiction. And for adults too. I think we need to confront some of these addictive features that they used to try to get us online all the time so they can take data, take stuff from us, and then sell to make money on it.