Op Ed Guest Columnist: Leaders in Columbia Shouldn’t Let Bad Actors Pass the Buck to Others; Protect Our Children from Inappropriate Online Content

Written by: Tracy Robins, Richland County
April 1, 2025

Throughout 2024, numerous reports exposed the secretive tactics used by social media giants like Facebook and TikTok to profit from children. This includes shady data collection practices, targeted advertising to minors, and algorithms designed to serve dangerous and addictive content to children. These reports have sparked an outcry among parents, including families here in South Carolina, for our elected officials to do something to stop bad actors from exploiting children and teenagers online.

In response to these growing concerns, lawmakers around the country have fought to rein in dangerous social media companies. This includes Governor McMaster’s decision to ban TikTok on state government devices. Additionally, Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined dozens of state attorneys general to sue Facebook for intentionally harming its young users. In the past, TikTok and Facebook have fought fiercely against regulations and lawsuits like these. However, it’s become impossible for social media companies to deny the harmful effects of their platforms.

Now, in the face of mounting pressure, Facebook has changed its tune, and the company claims it wants elected officials to pass social media regulations, but as always, the devil is in the details.

Facebook’s plan is to get lawmakers to regulate other companies so that social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook aren’t held responsible for intentionally designing addictive and harmful apps. Of course, there are some serious issues with Facebook’s plans. The Supreme Court has already overturned similar proposals, meaning taxpayer dollars will be spent defending Facebook-backed legislation instead of protecting our children. What’s worse is that the regulations Facebook supports wouldn’t even work. They include loopholes that would allow children to continue to access their platforms and would even force other businesses to hand private data over to social media companies, making it easier for bad actors like Facebook and TikTok to profit off their users’ sensitive information.

Facebook’s proposal has earned the support of other companies with a track record of unsavory business practices who have realized they could benefit by passing off the responsibility for their own problems. Match Group, for example, which owns many of the largest data apps on the market like Hinge and Tinder, has thrown its support behind the measure. Match, of course, sees the bill as a ticket to make someone else accountable for keeping underage users off of its apps, an issue the company has failed to address for years.

Pornography websites have even realized that these kinds of bills could benefit them. Companies that produce and promote explicit content have indicated their support for similar so-called “device filter” legislation that includes loopholes that would allow them to show inappropriate content to underage children and teens on their laptops, desktops, and some other devices without facing any accountability. 

However, lawmakers should not listen to social media giants, dating apps, or pornography companies about which online regulations will best protect young South Carolinians. Instead, they should listen to the parents of children who are affected by dangerous content online. New polling shows that 87% of parents support regulations to safeguard children’s mental health and shield them from inappropriate content online. The same study found that 93% of parents want content providers, including social media companies, video game makers, and pornography websites, to play a role in protecting kids from dangerous content on the internet.

In other words, parents know that the best way to keep children safe online is to hold actors accountable, and they’re right. Companies like Facebook have responded to recent pressure from lawmakers to make the apps they own safer. In fact, the company recently adopted technology to verify users’ ages and keep children away from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. In Columbia, state legislators should do the same and put pressure on Facebook and other bad actors to take similar actions that would keep young users off of their dangerous apps.

The fact is that dangerous apps are harmful to our children, and for far too long, these bad actors have avoided accountability for their actions. Lawmakers shouldn’t let them avoid responsibility again by falling for a transparent effort to put the onus on others.

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About the Author:

Tracy Robins lives in Columbia and is a retired public-school teacher. She currently serves as the Richland County Republican Party’s Election Committee Chairwoman.

What Say You? Got something you'd like to say? Letter to the Editor (Guest Column), praises, criticism, hate mail, news story tip or just want to say, howdy. Send them to Tony@palmettoexaminer.com

South Carolina Legislature Proposes Bill to Shield Gun Owners from Financial Tracking

Photo by Stephen Andrews

 
Written by Tony J. Spain, Palmetto Examiner
April 1, 2025

COLUMBIA, SC – (PE) A bill aimed to protect the financial privacy of gun owners is gaining momentum in the South Carolina House, targeting credit card companies to stop them from using specific merchant category codes (MCCs) to track firearm and ammunition purchases in the Palmetto State.

The "Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act" (House Bill 3930), the legislation passed unanimously through a House Judiciary subcommittee last week and is now headed to the full House Judiciary Committee for further debate.

Introduced by Rep. Bobby Cox (R-Greer), a former Army Ranger, Iraq War veteran and strong Second Amendment advocate, the bill responds to growing concerns among gun rights supporters about potential "financial surveillance."

“South Carolinians shouldn’t have to worry about their constitutional rights being tracked by their credit card statements,” Cox said during a recent hearing. “The bill ensures that law-abiding citizens can exercise their freedoms without fear of a backdoor registry.”

Protective legislation similar to South Carolina’s proposal started to be introduced around the nation after the International Organization for Standardization, an international nongovernmental group based in Switzerland that creates international business standards, approved in September 2022 the creation of unique MCC for stores that sell guns and ammunition, a move that some fear could enable banks or even the government to monitor lawful gun buyers.

The legislation prohibits financial institutions operating in South Carolina from assigning MCCs that distinguish firearm retailers from other merchants. It also empowers the state Attorney General to investigate violations, with fines of up to $1,000 per instance after a 30-day warning period.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, a vocal supporter, testified that such codes represent a "slippery slope" toward profiling gun owners, reinforcing the bill’s urgency.

Wilson was among 24 attorneys general nationwide who signed a letter to heads of American Express, Mastercard and Visa less than two weeks after the international group approved codes for gun stores that states the codes would “not protect safety” and unfairly singles out law-abiding merchants and consumers.”

“Purposely tracking this information can only result in its misuse, either unintentional or deliberate. Creating and tracking this data only matters if your institutions are considering using that information to take further, harmful action-like infringing upon consumer privacy, inhibiting constitutionally protected purchases by selectively restricting the use of your payment systems, or otherwise withholding your financial services from targeted ‘disfavored’ merchants,” the letter reads. “And generating a ‘list of gun buyers’ creates the obvious risk that law-abiding consumer’s information will be leaked, discovered, hacked, or otherwise obtained and misused by those who oppose Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights.”

Opposition to the bill has been minimal in South Carolina with most critics coming from national gun control advocacy groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety, who argue that MCCs is a safety measure that could help reduce mass killings and help detect illegal gun purchases, citing cases where transaction data aided investigations into mass shootings.

The killers in mass shootings such as the July 2012 Aurora, Colorado, movie theater; the June 2016 Orlando nightclub; and the 2017 Las Vegas music festival all bought thousands of dollars’ worth of guns ahead of the massacres, according to a report by The New York Times.

Banks in South Carolina have not and are currently not implementing MCCs and major card companies like Visa and Mastercard have paused a broader rollout making the South Carolina Bankers Association question the bill’s necessity.

"We do feel fairly confident that at least banks are not doing this in the state, or really anywhere right now, and right now, the card networks aren’t," said Neil Rashley, Senior Vice President, SCBA, suggesting the legislation might impose unneeded regulations.

 But supporters of the bill argue the measure is a proactive defense against future overreach.

"Even if banks aren’t using these codes now, we need to stop it before it starts," a spokesperson for the National Rifle Association said. The NRA has endorsed similar laws in 19 other states.

A nationwide ban on the tracking of gun purchases has been introduced in the U.S. House. One of the bills 95 co-sponsors includes South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson (R) SC-2.

California adopted legislation in September 2023 with opposite language where credit card companies are required to track firearm purchases. Colorado and New York followed. The codes must be assigned to gun stores in those states by May 1.

Legislators in North Carolina are considering a similar law.

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About the Author:

Tony Spain writes for his own website, Palmetto Examiner. He is a former candidate for Richland County Council 2020 and an award winning former military photographer and journalist while in the Public Affairs Office for the U.S. Army. His photos and writing have been published in numerous publications such as The Commercial News, Danville, Ill.; The Paraglide, Fort Bragg, N.C.; Soldier of Fortune Magazine; The State Newspaper, Columbia, S.C., and more. He currently writes for his own website, Palmetto Examiner

He lives in Columbia, S.C.

What Say You? Got something you'd like to say? Letter to the Editor (Guest Column), praises, criticism, hate mail, news story tip or just want to say, howdy. Send them to Tony@palmettoexaminer.com