California lawmaker amends bill aimed at setting social media age limit
A California bill that aimed to set a minimum age of 16 for children to have certain social media accounts would now require companies that want to have such users on their platforms to provide them with a version that does not have features that are considered addicting.
Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, agreed to change Assembly Bill 1709 after state senators and advocates raised concerns that preventing young people from having access to accounts could cut them off from a supportive online environment, particularly children who are LGBTQ+ or who are not safe in their living situation.
“The amendments don’t remove the minimum age requirements from the bill, instead they adjust how the minimum age requirements are applied by creating a pathway for healthier and safer social media platforms that remain accessible to kids.,” Lowenthal said in a statement.
The measure passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 13-0 vote late Tuesday evening after Lowenthal agreed to take the amendments.
The previous version of the bill had garnered strong bipartisan support in the 80-person Assembly, passing out of the chamber with 76 votes in favor of it. The proposal was following the lead of Australia, which late last year became the first country to establish a minimum age of social media use. The country’s limit is also 16 years old.
Despite the widespread support in the Assembly, the bill faced a wide array of opposition that included trade groups for large social media companies, organizations that support young people and advocates for digital privacy.
Opponents remained against the bill even after the recent changes.
“Instead of cutting teens off from online communities and information, we support an approach that empowers parents to manage their teens’ online activities, and that provides safe, age-appropriate experiences across the many apps teens use,” Meta spokesperson Jim Cullinan said in a statement. The company owns social media giants Facebook and Instagram.
They included NetChoice, a technology industry trade group that has sued California over past laws related to how companies treat children online.
“All the proposed amendments unfortunately serve as window dressing to an already hopelessly unconstitutional bill,” Zach Lilly, a director of government affairs, said in a statement.
The previous version of the bill prohibited certain social media companies from allowing someone who is under 16 years old from creating or keeping an account if the platform used a feed that recommend information to users based on their profiles or interactions with content found on the site.
Under the amended version, companies that want children under 16 to use their platforms must provide them with a version that does not have that type of feed or other features. Companies would be required to verify the age of children, in part, by using a digital signaling system that next year will be required by state law.
The bill, as it did before, still calls for creating an e-Safety Advisory Commission within the state Department of Justice that would advise the attorney general on how to implement and enforce the law. Companies that don’t follow the new rules would be subject to tens of thousands of fines for each violation.
Supporters of the measure continued to back the bill even with the changes.
“This approach is looking at some of the major drivers of the harm that we’re seeing happen on the ground with children,” said Marc Berkman, CEO of Organization for Social Media Safety. “By focusing in, specifically on those harms, we are targeting the source, the cause and not extraneously including other aspects of social media use.”
The bill will go to the full Senate if it makes it through the chamber’s appropriations committee.
