WASHINGTON — Several states are pushing legislation that would curtail online access and social media use by kids, setting up yet another potential confrontation between states and Congress on technology policy.
Arkansas on Wednesday became the second state to restrict social media use by children, as Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation requiring minors to get their parents’ permission to create a new account, the Associated Press reported. The new law, which requires social media companies to contract with third-party vendors to perform age verification checks on new users, will apply to new accounts created starting in September.
That follows similar legislation signed into law by Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox last month that requires social media platforms to verify the age of users, bans all ads for minors and imposes a curfew on social media use overnight for anyone under age 18. That law, which goes into effect March 1, 2024, also requires tech companies to give parents access to teenagers’ accounts.
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Last August, California was the first state to pass legislation mandating safeguards for minors online. It requires tech companies to design apps that default to privacy and safety settings to protect children’s mental and physical health and goes into effect in July 2024. The tech industry is challenging the law in court.
Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas also are considering bills that would require age verification of minors and parental consent.
The states’ actions could raise the pressure on Congress to move on data privacy legislation. The tech companies warn that without a national standard, the state laws could mean more data gets collected.
“All of this further epitomizes the need for one national data privacy standard,” said Carl Szabo, vice president at NetChoice, a trade group that represents Amazon.com Inc., Google LLC, Meta Platforms Inc., TikTok, Yahoo Inc. and others.
The complexity of having to comply with multiple state privacy laws and new measures addressing children’s safety “will push not only businesses, but parents and nonprofits to begin demanding Congress to enact one national standard,” he said.
Congress didn’t advance a national data privacy measure last year after House members including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi objected to the bill they deemed to be less stringent than privacy standards enacted by California. The Senate Commerce Committee voted favorably on two measures in July 2022 to address kids’ online privacy and prohibit advertising targeting children under 12 without the consent of parents. Neither measure got a floor vote.
The Senate bills advanced after a whistleblower’s revelations that Meta knew its products, such as Instagram, were harming the mental and physical health of teenage users but chose not to prevent such harm.
Instagram on a mobile device.
Aimee Winder Newton, a senior adviser to the Utah governor, said the state is still drawing up details on how its legislation would be implemented.
The state’s Department of Commerce is preparing rules for tech companies to verify ages and for minors to get parental consent, Winder Newton said, adding that Utah is studying Louisiana’s digital wallet, which uses an app-based driver’s license system, as one way to verify age online.
To avoid collecting personal information on children and minors, Utah would require only adults to prove their age, she said.
If a user “can’t verify that they’re an adult, then they would default to a minor account,” Winder Newton said. “And that’s specifically so that minors are not giving any of their data information to social media companies directly.”
Tech companies would be required to use the internet addresses of Utah minors to determine whether they can be on the social media platforms at night, she said.
But Szabo at NetChoice warned that the state laws would add to the data collection. “In order for me to verify that you are authorized to access this website, I need to collect your perfect information every time you visit a website,” he said, referring to the need to collect all forms of identity each time a user goes online. “So, we would no longer have anonymous browsing.”
He said a verified user could still hand a laptop or phone to a minor or child, and tech companies would need facial recognition technology to ensure the person has been verified. Tech companies also would have to create a log of every person who visits a website and would have to store that information in order to respond to potential lawsuits, making that information more liable to be leaked, he said.
Jason Kelley, associate director for digital strategy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group that advocates for free speech and digital privacy, said a tough national data privacy standard may eliminate the need for age verification systems.
A federal measure that restricts the ability of tech companies to collect unlimited data on users could “shift the profit motive of a lot of these companies, which are built on data collection and targeted ads,” Kelley said. “That could lead to a less toxic online” experience overall.
It also could lead to more competition, which could give users and kids more options to choose platforms that offer greater protections and safer experiences, he said.
