SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Two bills aimed at regulating social media have been introduced on Utah’s Capitol Hill.
Lawmakers said they believe the bills would better protect teens from an invasion of privacy and from addictive algorithms being used by social media platforms.
Some parents said they’re fully on board with the idea, but the state is already facing federal lawsuits because of the social media bills that passed in 2023.
Ava Woodbury is a 7th grader from Panguitch Middle School. She was visiting the capital with her classmates.
The only social media app she uses is BeReal, and she’s only connected to her cousins. There are times, she said, when she feels she’s missing out.
“Sometimes, when I’m hanging out with my friends and all they’re doing is just [being] on their phones, I sometimes feel left out, but, when we’re actually doing something, not really,” Woodbury said.
Her mother, Laura Woodbury, won’t let her sign up for Facebook, Instagram or TikTok due to concerns about how addictive the sites are.
“Even as an older parent, it can draw you in so fast and you get stuck, or you compare yourself to other people,” Laura said.
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One of the bills, HB 464, would let parents hold social media companies liable if their addictive algorithms cause their children harm. However, it would allow the tech companies to get around that if a parent gives their children permission to use it.
Sen. Michael McKell said 88 percent of Utah’s parents believe social media is harmful to their kids.
“Social media is having negative impacts on sleeping patterns, academic performance [and] overall health. The other concern that we have is the invasion of privacy,” McKell said.
His bill, SB 194, would give parents better tools to manage their kids’ accounts, plus, a strict age-verification would be in place.
“If it’s a minor, they’ll go through an age-verification process that needs to be done with 95 percent accuracy. Over the last year, we’ve been able to talk to stakeholders and vendors and a lot of folks in the tech industry. Meeting that 95 percent standard is fairly easy, that’s what we’ve been told,” he said.
The bill would also require social media sites to get a parent’s permission before they share or sell any information they’ve collected through their apps.
McKell said he believes it may be hard to enforce that new rule because tech companies would be reluctant to share the information they’re collecting.
He also believes tech companies have never acted in good faith when they work with lawmakers to protect children from any kind of harm.
“I’m not convinced that the tech industry has ever worked on this issue in good faith, and I’ll give you an example,” McKell said. “In the state of California, the tech industry worked on a bill dealing with age-appropriate design and [tech companies] filed a lawsuit. When we moved forward with this legislation, we always said we were going to delay the implementation date so we can continue to work on this issue, then we were hit with a lawsuit.”
Recently, the group NetChoice filed a federal lawsuit against the state, saying social media bills passed last year would require all users, not just minors, to share an excess of personal information in order to confirm their age.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression also filed a lawsuit claiming Utah’s newly-passed social media regulations would cut off vulnerable people from potentially life-saving information.
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