#

Gov. Chris Sununu is telling kids to put down their phones and go touch grass.

Sununu issued an executive order Wednesday aimed at getting New Hampshire children off social media and into the outdoors. At the same time, the state is investigating the harm apps like TikTok and Instagram are doing to children.

Sununu’s order comes following extensive meetings with Attorney General John Formella about the dangers posed by sites like TikTok and Instagram.

“New Hampshire’s children are the future of our state and our nation, and we are making every effort to ensure necessary changes are made to prevent harm by these platforms. New Hampshire will look at all necessary options to protect our children – including spending more time off screens and outdoors.”

The state’s ongoing investigation into the numerous harms to children posed by social media platforms started in November 2021. The new executive order is based on some of those findings. Formella said social media is disastrous for youth mental health and is creating a crisis among children and teens.

“Extensive social media use has been tied to profound risks of harm in youth. Indeed, there has been an increased focus on the correlation between the development of serious mental health disorders by minors and time spent on social media. My office is actively considering how it can best protect New Hampshire’s youth from the harm these platforms cause and promote,” Formella said. “Eliminating the harmful effects of social media on New Hampshire’s youth and holding social media platforms accountable for their actions is a top priority for me.”

Sununu also wants to use the classroom to fight harmful social media habits. His order gives the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services 90 days to develop guidelines for a social media curriculum to be submitted to the State Board of Education. This curriculum for all K-12 health classes will teach the potentially negative impacts of social media use.

Sununu’s order came one day before the House is expected to vote on a Democrat-backed bill to give kids more access to social media in classrooms. Under SB213, schools will use social media accounts for instruction as long as it is connected to a particular study area. The bill also requires that parents provide written permission for that social media use.

Sununu’s office did not respond to NH Journal when asked about SB213.

Under Sununu’s plan, state agencies will also promote a new GoPlayNH Initiative to encourage kids and families to spend more time off their screens and outdoors. The initiative will highlight the various recreation opportunities available across the Granite State.

“Teaching our children how to engage with society in a healthy, fulfilling way is a core component to providing a holistic education that prepares the next generation for success in every way,” said Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut. “I am thankful that Governor Sununu is taking action to address the societal impact of social media and look forward to hearing directly from parents and students so that we may work side by side to support the needs of the community.”

More details on the rollout of the GoPlayNH Initiative are expected in the coming weeks.

This isn’t Sununu’s first foray into the social media fight. Last December, he banned the Chinese-owned Tik Tok app from state-issued electronic devices. TikTok gathers data from users’ phones that is unrelated to using the app, and the company makes that data available upon request to the Chinese Communist Party, according to multiple media accounts.

And Formella joined 46 other state attorneys general in March, asking a Tennessee judge to order the company to open up its internal communications for review.

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella says he believes the TikTok app is hurting children and teens and adding fuel to the nation’s youth mental health crisis. Now he has joined a national effort by his fellow attorneys general demanding more transparency from a company known for its ties to China’s communist regime.

Last December, Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order banning TikTok from state-issued smartphones.

On Monday, Formella joined 46 other state attorneys general in asking a Tennessee judge to order the company to open up its internal communications for review. 

“Our youth spend hours on social media platforms each day. We already know that on TikTok they are being exposed to harmful content including, but certainly not limited to, potentially deadly viral challenges, bullying, and graphic content showcasing sexual images and drug use,” Formella said. 

The Tennessee lawsuit has become a national fight as evidence mounts that too many children and teens are ending up with mental health disorders because of social media addictions enabled by the tech giants. Parents and communities need to act to protect children, and states need to get involved, too, according to Formella.

Attorney General John Formella

“As we work to help parents better protect their children online, we must be able to thoroughly investigate and understand the methods and techniques utilized by TikTok to boost young user engagement, including how the company specifically works to increase the duration of time spent on the platform as well as the frequency of engagement with the platform,” he said.

The attorneys general want to review internal TikTok communications to see if the company engaged in deceptive, unfair, and unconscionable conduct that harmed the mental health of TikTok users, particularly children and teens. The company has been stalling, handing over useless data and even deleting records, according to claims made in court documents.

The amicus brief signed by Formella and his counterparts claims TikTok employees use a messaging system called Lark for internal communications, and that the employees have the app set to erase the content.

“TikTok has flouted its duty to preserve communications and provide them in an unusable format. They have instead continued to allow employees to send auto-deleting messages over the Lark platform after the start of the investigation and have provided messages to the states in a format that is difficult to use and navigate,” according to Formella’s statement.

 Congress could move this week to give President Joe Biden the authority to institute a national ban on the app, which is considered a national security threat.

“TikTok is the Chinese Communist Party’s backdoor into American phones,” Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chair who is behind the law authorizing Biden to ban apps and software nationally.

TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, which has ties to China’s Communist government. There are concerns about TikTok gathering intelligence data on Americans, as well as the app giving an authoritarian and hostile China the ability to easily disseminate misinformation.

FBI Director Christopher Wray considers the app a potential threat.

“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us,” Wray said.

Formella is focusing on the impact TikTok is having on teens and preteens, especially girls. 

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released findings demonstrating a startling increase in challenges to youth mental health, youth experiences of violence, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among teenagers, especially teenage girls. This includes a finding that nearly one-third of teen girls seriously considered suicide in 2021, a nearly 60 percent increase from a decade prior,” Formella said in the statement.

A TikTok spokeswoman noted Congress passed a ban on the app from federal devices in December, dismissing it as “little more than political theater.”

“The swiftest and most thorough way to address any national security concerns about TikTok is for CFIUS to adopt the proposed agreement that we worked with them on for nearly two years. These plans have been developed under the oversight of our country’s top national security agencies, and we are well underway in implementing them to further secure our platform in the United States,” she said.

Some analysis finds TikTok is replacing Google as a top source for information, including news, among Gen Z consumers.

State employees won’t be able to use the video-sharing social media app TikTok now that Gov. Chris Sununu has signed an executive order outlawing the service from state-issued smartphones. 

“New Hampshire is joining the growing list of states that have banned TikTok and other Chinese companies from state government devices and networks. This move will help preserve the safety, security, and privacy of the citizens of New Hampshire,” Sununu said.

The order banning the tech, linked to the Chinese Communist Party, was signed on Wednesday.

Sununu’s decision is supported by House Speaker Sherm Packard (R-Londonderry) who told NHJournal, “There’s no way in hell TikTok should be on any state-owned device.”

Several states with Republican governors have banned the software from government-issued phones, including Maryland, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah. And Indiana is suing TikTok, claiming the app exposes children to harmful content.

TikTok is popular with teens and Gen Z, but it carries a known security risk. TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is required by Chinese law to make the app’s data available to the Chinese Communist Party.

This week Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) was successful in getting the Senate to pass a measure banning the app from federal government-issued phones and devices. 

Rubio says his Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act) would protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern.

“This isn’t about creative videos — this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day,” Rubio said in a statement. “We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.” 

Rubio’s bill now goes to the House of Representatives.

New Hampshire cannot ban the app from private users, but it can control what goes on to the phones it hands out to state employees. Individual New Hampshire state agencies are responsible for issuing iPhones to employees to use for state business purposes, but all the phones are controlled through the DoIT.

Denis Goulet, commissioner for the Department of Information Technology, said Thursday the state already prohibits the use of the app on the state-issued iPhones.

“We hadn’t been allowing TikTok on our state devices anyway,” Goulet said.

Goulet said employees already agree not to use TikTok as part of the agreement when they are issued their phones. All non-state business is already banned. “Stuff that is clearly non-business, or things that are inappropriate, or things that are a risk are proscribed,” Goulet noted.

Asked about Sununu’s move, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne simply replied, “I am going to miss the daily dance videos from the Insurance Department.”