California social media addiction Bill advances in narrower form

CALIFORNIA – A California Bill seeking to hold social media companies legally responsible for addicting young users to their platforms has moved forward, after clearing an initial hurdle upon being amended to allow lawsuits only by public prosecutors.

The legislation, which has drawn strong opposition from the tech industry, would prohibit companies such as Meta Platforms, Snap, TikTok and Google from designing social media platforms that hook users younger than 18 years old.

The legislation would also impose penalties of up to US$250,000 (S$332,000) for each violation.

Tuesday’s 8-0 vote by a Senate committee in the state capitol in Sacramento is just the first of several steps needed to get the measure on the desk of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Introduced in February by Ms Nancy Skinner, a Democratic senator whose district is in Berkeley and Oakland, the Bill would have allowed parents to sue the companies within four years of alleged harms.

But Ms Skinner agreed during Tuesday’s hearing to a revision that authorises only the state’s attorney general and local district attorneys to file suits.

A similar proposal died in the legislature in 2022 amid fierce resistance from the industry.

The legislative action comes as parents and school districts have filed scores of lawsuits claiming social media is causing a mental health crisis among children and adolescents.

The companies have said in response that they are offering more resources to keep children safe online, while also arguing that the lawsuits improperly seek to regulate content. 

“We’ve developed more than 30 tools to support teens and families, including tools that let parents and teens work together to limit the amount of time teens spend on Instagram, and age verification technology that helps teens have age-appropriate experiences,” Meta said in a statement.

Senate Bill 287 would build on existing privacy and software design laws to require companies to perform quarterly audits to guarantee kids are not addicted to their social media platforms.

The Bill penalises companies for allowing underage users to buy controlled substances on their platforms, as well as when their content causes them to harm themselves or others, develop eating disorders, or when they offer information facilitating suicide, among other problems.

Ms Sophie Szew, a 20-year-old first-year student at Stanford University, testified in support of the Bill, saying she suffered from an eating disorder as a teen after first downloading Instagram at her tenth birthday party.

“Standing with me is a generation that knows all too well what it is to be harmed by a flawed system,” she told the committee.

Dr Carl Szabo, a professor of Internet law and general counsel for NetChoice, a free enterprise advocacy group, criticised the measure over what he described as a misguided definition of addiction that would allow companies to be sued for online activity that “people enjoy doing”. 

He also said he expects there will be constitutional challenges against “wild violations” of the First Amendment in Utah’s new social media laws, among the most aggressive in the nation, which require platforms to obtain parental consent before allowing state residents under 18 to use them, create overnight curfew rules and penalise companies if they employ designs or features that feed addiction. 

Ms Skinner acknowledged comments by fellow lawmakers that some language in the Bill is too broad, though she said none of the opponents have offered specific amendments.

“The Bill still has a long way to go,” she said.

“I’m very open to suggestions or improvement.” BLOOMBERG