I’m Charlene Concepción Nijmeh and I’m running for Congress to disrupt the longstanding practice of Silicon Valley’s Big Tech cor­porations profiting from harmful technology products that are mar­keted to our children.  Advertisers are willing to pay big dollars to com­municate hyper-commercial and often sexually complicated mes­sages to the developing brains of our children.

 

Over the last decade, as these social media technologies have proliferated, rates of bullying, de­pression, and youth suicide have skyrocketed.  As a mother of five, I have made combating the dangers of the internet a central focus of my campaign.  

 

I will hold Big Tech accountable for its role in enabling global sex traffick­ing.  Big Tech will be held responsible for the damage they have done to our youth. We are going to hold Big Tech accountable the same way that a previous generation held Big Tobacco accountable to pro­tect our children. 

 

I’m drafting legislation that would require social media products and services to seek approval from a consum­er protection agency that will be tasked with evaluating the poten­tial harms, psychological impacts, and addictive patterns that are associated with the technology products. 

 

Whether through mod­ernizing and expanding the role of the FDA, or setting up another consumer protection agency to deal specifically with technology products, I will work to safe­guard the social and psycholog­ical well-being of minors. My approach parallels the national campaign against tobacco, where cigarette manufacturers once heavily targeted youth in their marketing and advertising. 

 

Similarly, I will pursue legislation that bans companies from advertising or marketing social media prod­ucts directly to minors, requiring parental consent for mi­nors to download applications to smartphones or to subscribe to software products that would en­able them to communicate with adults. 

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On March 5th – Vote Charlene for Congress.  Vote for real change, not more of the same.