This is surely going to be one of the 93% of bills that never make it to law. First there is his op. ed. and surely this is not serious:

First his “maybe we’d be better off if Facebook disappeared.” is part of an argument. He is saying we need to be tough on social media and not let ourselves be shoved around by them.

Confront the industry, we’re told, and you might accidentally kill it — and with it, all the innovation it has (supposedly) brought to our society.

Maybe. But maybe social media’s innovations do our country more harm than good. Maybe social media is best understood as a parasite on productive investment, on meaningful relationships, on a healthy society.

Maybe we’d be better off if Facebook disappeared.

• We might be better off if Facebook, Instagram and Twitter vanished: Sen. Josh Hawley

It's just an op ed. Not even a proposal for a law. You have free speech in the US, people are permitted to say things like this and they do not have to be sensible and sometimes they may be a bit tongue in cheek to make a point.

This is another article I'm writing to support people we help in the Facebook Doomsday Debunked group, that find us because they get scared, sometimes to the point of feeling suicidal about it, by such stories.

Do share this with your friends if you find it useful, as they may be panicking too.

I doubt that he seriously wants to see his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts disappear for instance.

Josh Hawley, 102 k followers and 26.2K like

• Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) | Twitter, 71.9K followers
• Senator Josh Hawley (@senatorhawley) • Instagram photos and videos 884 followers

He doesn't seriously want to close down Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Then there’s his proposed bill. There is no official text yet but there is a draft:

His Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology Act, or the SMART Act

See also

• New bill would ban autoplay videos and endless scrolling
• S.2314 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): A bill to prohibit social media companies from using practices that exploit human psychology or brain physiology to substantially impede freedom of choice, to require social media companies to take measures to mitigate the risks of internet addiction and psychological exploitation, and for other purposes.?

The bill outlaws endless scrolling or auto play of videos on YouTube without prompts before each one, unless the main purpose is to stream music.

Then it has this timer requirement with a built in limit of 30 minutes. You can switch it off but it switches back on automatically each month. After the 30 minutes is over you can no longer use the internet for social media (unless you switched it off previously).

Also - apparently even if you switch it off, it still pops up every 30 minutes telling you how much time you’ve spent so far on the internet.

(2) automatically limits the amount of time that a user may spend on those platforms across all devices to 30 minutes a day unless the user elects to adjust or remove the time limit and, if the user elects to increase or remove the time limit, resets the time limit to 30 minutes a day on the first day of every month;

(3) provides users with regular disclosures, including immediate disclosures when prompted by the user, of the amount of time the user has spent on those platforms across all devices, broken down by day, week, month, year, and platform; and

(4) displays a conspicuous pop-up to a user not less than once every 30 minutes that the user spends on those platforms, regardless of whether the user spent the 30 minutes on multiple devices, that shows how much time the user has spent on those platforms that day.

93% of bills don't become law, and I get the impression that for some of them, the people who propose them are not really serious at all, just trying to get attention. It might even be his main reason for doing this is for the newspaper headlines

The idea of that prompt especially - and an enforced one - is plain silly (unless I have misunderstood the idea). Surely unconstitutional as well though I don't know the in's and outs of why but it's one of those things where you don't think he can be serious, just trying to trigger some debate about internet addiction and what we can do if anything.

It is interfering with their ability to engage in normal internet activity. It is none of the government’s business how much time someone spends on the internet.

Practically, as he describes it in that draft, it would be not something any website could do. It would have to be built into every operating system, nobody else except your own computer can know how much time you spend on the internet and then to work out if it is social media - and it's tantamount to forcing an institution approved app onto every computer.

The only alternative to installing it on your computer would be to have a system of sharing your details online amongst all the online social media platforms and that would only work if they also shared your ip address and even then it wouldn't be a sure thing because most of us don't have static ip addresses.

Basically it is impossible for social media companies to know for sure if someone on one website is the same person as on another without very very invasive analysis to e.g. check the timing of the posts and even then it wouldn't be sure as there are often several people sharing an ip address if they are all on the same network, in a house or small business say, even on the same computer.

Another complication is the use of multiple accounts on the same platform. For instance Twitter has no requirement to disclose a real world identity, nor does YouTube. So you could have a dozen accounts on each, but for this to work they would have to figure out which of those identities are the same person across both all your ids on Twitter and YouTube, and on Facebook, Instagram etc.

It’s either force people to have baby sitting software on their computer in some way that communicates to the internet too to verify it is installed properly before you use any social media host would - or - to have error prone sharing of information between all social media sites and a high risk of people getting the alert triggered because of someone else's tweet or post

And it would mean e.g. a small business in the middle of trying to chat to customers, or trying to close a sale suddenly a popup warns them they have been talking to their customers for over 30 minutes.

Also what if I already have an app to stop me spending too much time on the internet? So that one keys in and this one as well?

Lawyers would get involved if it ever seemed to be getting anywhere, probably already at the first committee and I don't know how exactly it would be but pretty sure it would count as restricting your digital rights and be unlawful.

However though his method doesn’t make sense as a law, he is trying to tackle a real issue. Psychologists are starting to recognize it as a condition.

It’s warning signs are:

• Preoccupation with the Internet. (Thoughts about previous on-line activity or anticipation of the next on-line session.)
• Use of the Internet in increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction.
• Repeated, unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop Internet use.
• Feelings of restlessness, moodiness, depression, or irritability when attempting to cut down use of the Internet.
• On-line longer than originally intended.
• Jeopardized or risked loss of significant relationships, job, educational or career opportunities because of Internet use.
• Lies to family members, therapists, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the Internet.
• Use of the Internet is a way to escape from problems or to relieve a dysphoric mood. (e.g. Feelings of hopelessness, guilt, anxiety, depression.)
  
  Internet Addiction

For an academic look at it:

Internet Addiction: A Brief Summary of Research and Practice

For help with recognizing whether you have an addiction and how to cope, and self-help tips:

• Computer/Internet Addiction Symptoms, Causes and Effects - PsychGuides.com
• Getting Help for an Internet Addiction - PsychGuides.com
• Smartphone Addiction

Also it is true that the social media sites are designed to keep users engaged as much as possible - which may have the potential to encourage internet addiction.

If you are getting addicted to the internet, then endless scrolling feeds may feed your addiction, but for those who are not, they are just useful.

There may be other things that can be done to reduce internet addiction. Maybe this will morph into another bill that is actually feasible.

Apple already have their Screen Time app: