Teen creates app to protect kids from social media, says total ban 'won't work'

TAMPA, Fla. - Florida could become the first in the nation to pass a bill banning kids 16 and younger from social media.

The approved bill is now on the governor’s desk awaiting a signature by this Friday. While Meta and other social media companies have come under recent fire for negative effects on minors, one teenager says the bill is a mistake.

READ: Supreme Court hears major social media cases on content moderation and free speech

"There's definitely a middle ground where we can use the good parts of social media and avoid the bad parts," Aahil Valliani said.

Pictured: Aahil Valliani

At just 14 years old, Aahil Valliani created an app called SafeKids. The idea is for the app to intercept inappropriate content and teach kids in the moment how to make safer choices on social media.

READ: Instagram’s latest feature encourages teens to close app at night

"[The app] uses AI so if I search ‘civil war rifle’ it would know the intent is educational. But another example is if I search suicidal content or violence, weapons… it will block the screen and tell me why the content is not good for me and give kids a choice. Kids actually make the right choice when they understand why content it not good for them," shared Valliani.

Three years later, his app has thousands of young users. He says educating kids on the harms of social media is better than banning them completely.

"When you see a blocked screen, our natural curiosity would say ‘what is this? Why is it blocked?’ Curiosity gets the better of us, and it gets taken advantage of. When you block social media to 16, eventually we are going to go to college and have free-range of the internet and that’s when mistakes happen. But SafeKids allows you to make mistakes and recover from them."

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