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New bill aims to ban cell phone use for those aged under 21, but it’s mostly a political stunt

The odd bill has been created just to raise awareness.

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A Vermont legislator has just introduced a new bill that states that those under 21 cannot use cell phones because they are not mature enough to handle them.

The information revealed by the WPTZ news station indicated that state senator John Rodgers came to propose a law with criminal penalties so that people under 21 cannot use cell phones. The proposal suggests penalties of up to one year in jail, fines of up to $1,000, or both.

Senator Rodgers said regarding his proposal that young people are too immature to use cell phones, using as the main argument the number of car accidents that occur due to teenagers driving while using smartphones.

A wake-up call

One of the paragraphs that can be read in the proposal presented by Senator Rodgers points out that: “In the light of the dangerous and life-threatening consequences of cell phone use by young, it is clear that people under 21 don’t have enough development to possess them safely”.

Rodgers places smartphones along with other cases where it is required to be adult, such as alcohol consumption, possession of firearms, or the purchase of cigarettes.

Another of the arguments to postulate the law is that, supposedly, smartphones lend themselves to encourage bullying and other acts of vandalism. “The Internet and social networks, which are accessed mainly through cell phones, are used to radicalize and recruit terrorists, fascists, and other extremists. Cell phones have often been used by early-aged mass shooters to investigate previous shootings”, wrote the senator.

However, the bill is considered surreal and even an exaggerated measure, since Rodgers himself admits that he would not vote to approve the proposal. Rodgers said he is a faithful advocate of the second amendment, and that with this law he would be violating the rights he defends. The legislator only wanted to raise awareness of how dangerous cell phones can be if they are not used responsibly.

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