Utah, United States: The Governor of Utah Mr. Spencer Cox has signed controversial social media legislation requiring explicit parental permissions for anyone under 18 to use platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. The head of the US state also signed a bill prohibiting social media companies from employing techniques that could cause minors to develop an “addiction” to the platforms.
This is the first state law in the US prohibiting social media services from allowing access to minors without parental consent. The state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed both bills earlier in March 2023, despite opposition from civil liberties groups.
“We are no longer willing to let social media companies continue to harm the mental health of our youth,” Mr. Cox noted in a message on Twitter.
The impact of social media on children has become a topic of growing debate among lawmakers at the state and federal levels.
The new law prohibiting minors from accessing social media without their parents’ consent would further enable parents to access all of their children’s posts. The platforms will be required to block users younger than 18 from accessing accounts between 10.30 PM and 6.30 AM unless parents modify the settings.
In addition, the new law prohibits social media companies from advertising to minors, collecting information about them, or targeting content at them.
However, the methods through which the states plan to enforce the new regulations are not clear. Companies are already prohibited from collecting data on children younger than 13 without parental consent under the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. For this reason, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up for their platforms. But children can easily access it, both with and without their parents’ permission.
Several civil liberties groups have raised concerns that such provisions will block marginalised youth, including LGBTQ+ teens, from accessing online support networks and information.
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