An emphasis for Tennessee lawmakers this past year has been on protecting children through legislation.

One of the new laws that has gone into effect with the new year could bring up difficult conversations between parents and their children.

One of the bills passed – the Protecting Children from Social Media Act - requires social media companies to verify the age of a user and requires parental consent for any minor attempting to create an account on a social media platform.

Tennessee State Representative Rebecca Alexander is in full support of this change.

“We've been given a job as parents and that is to provide for children to protect our children and to help our children be everything that can be and protecting our children from excessive use on social media is one of the things that we need to do the most,” Alexander said.

Rachel Miller-Slough is a clinical psychologist here in the Tri-Cities who specializes in children, adolescents, and families.

“For social media the research is mixed on it in the sense that there are some ways that can be helpful and ways it can be harmful. It all depends on how you use social media,” Miller-Slough said.

She says, harm is done when social media becomes a child's only form of social contact.

“But we actually see that social media can have an enhancing effect for youth who have a lot of in person social contact can really enhance and deepen friendships,” she said.

Miller-Slough says these new restrictions in Tennessee could bring up difficult conversations in households regarding social media.

She says with the increase in social media use among kids and teens there could be some push back when it comes to limiting their screen time.

“Addressing the emotion first really helped the team feel seen and validated and then they're in a place where they're able to talk more with their parents that can have a more productive conversation than trying to discipline whatever both the parent and the teen are seeing red and super angry nothing effective is going to get done there. It's just going to escalate.

Miller-Slough is also part of “Tuning into Teens”, a free parenting program at ETSU. You can find more information about that program here .

Another new law that has gone into effect with the new year – the Protect Tennessee Minors Act – is aimed at limiting children’s access to pornographic websites.

The law requires websites with at least 33.33% of their material labelled as harmful to minors, to confirm user’s ages through official US documentation such as a drivers license.

If publishers of these sites fail to verify ages the bill states it will be listed as a Class C Felony and the Attorney General is authorized to bring appropriate action.

More laws that could impact your kids might be in the future.

Representative Alexander sponsored a bill back in 2024 to prohibit students from using cell phones during instructional time in Tennessee schools.

She’s planning to reintroduce that bill in 2025.

News 5 will continue to follow this and other bills throughout the 2025 legislative session.