Proposed bill would ban cellphone use for anyone under 21

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WNCN) — How much do you value your cellphone?

Well, according to a bill introduced in the Vermont Senate, owning a cellphone under the age of 21 would be illegal in the state, should the legislation pass.

The bill, S.212, would make possession or use of a cellphone a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of a year behind bars or a $1,000 fine or both.

According to the legislation, there are links between cellphone use by people under the age of 21 to a rise in driving fatalities, suicides, mass shootings, and terrorism.

“The internet and social media, accessed primarily through cell phones, are used to radicalize and recruit terrorists, fascists, and other extremists,” the bill reads.

Senator John Rodgers, a Democrat, said he introduced the bill on Tuesday to make a point.

“I have no delusions that it’s going to pass,” he told the Barre Montpelier Times Argus newspaper on Wednesday. “I wouldn’t probably vote for it myself.”

Rodgers says he thinks owning a cellphone may be more dangerous than owning a gun.