Utah becomes first state to enact a law limiting kids’ use of social media

“We’re no longer willing to let social media companies continue to harm the mental health of our youth. Today we signed two key bills in our fight against social media companies into law.”
Source – Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a pair of measures Thursday that requires parental consent before kids can access social media sites.

The two bills the Republican governor signed into law also prohibit kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., require age verification for anyone who wants to use social media in the state, and seek to prevent tech companies from luring kids to their apps using addictive features.

The measures also require companies to give a parent or guardian access to their child’s social media accounts. Adults will also have to confirm their ages to use social media platforms or they’ll lose account access.

According to the Associated Press, the measures also open the door to lawsuits on behalf of children claiming social media harmed them. A number of tech companies are expected to sue before the laws take effect in March 2024.

“Youth rates of depression and other mental health issues are on the rise because of social media companies,” Cox said in a tweet Thursday. “As leaders and parents, we have a responsibility to protect our young people.”

Tech giants like Facebook and Google have enjoyed unbridled growth for over a decade, amid concerns over user privacy, hate speech, misinformation, and harmful effects on teens’ mental health.

Lawmakers have made Big Tech attacks a rallying cry on the campaign trail and begun trying to rein them in once in office. Utah’s law was signed on the same day TikTok’s CEO testified before Congress about, among other things, the platform’s effects on teenagers’ mental health.

And while legislation has stalled on the federal level at reining in tech companies, Utah is not the only state stepping up to deal with the problem. Lawmakers in red states including Arkansas, Texas, Ohio, and Louisiana, and blue states including New Jersey are advancing similar proposals.

The flip side of the coin

Ari Cohn, a free speech lawyer for TechFreedom said last week that the then-bills “violate the First Amendment and threaten to fragment the Internet.”

He argued that the governor shouldn’t sign bills that force social media users to provide ID showing their age and, for minors, parental consent.

Jim Steyer, the CEO, and founder of Common Sense, a nonprofit advocacy group focusing on kids and technology, hailed the law aimed at reining in social media’s addictive features.

But Steyer said the other bill Cox signed giving parents access to children’s social media posts would “deprive kids of the online privacy protections we advocate for, a violation of their First Amendment rights.

The law also requires age verification and parental consent for minors to create a social media account, which doesn’t get to the root of the problem, said Steyer. “Kids and teens will still be exposed to companies’ harmful data collection and design practices once they are on the platform.”

Tech industry lobbyists quickly decried the laws as unconstitutional, saying they infringe on people’s right to exercise the First Amendment online.

“Utah will soon require online services to collect sensitive information about teens and families, not only to verify ages but to verify parental relationships, like government-issued IDs and birth certificates, putting their private data at risk of breach,” said Nicole Saad Bembridge, an associate director at NetChoice, a tech lobby group.