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A first-of-its-kind social media restriction bill was signed into law Thursday by Utah governor Spencer Cox, who hailed the legislation as a decisive win in reversing the Relationship minors have with “destructive social media apps.” Under SB 152, which is scheduled to take effect in March 2024, children and teens in Utah would be barred from apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter unless they are granted prior parental consent. It would also require social media companies operating in the state to establish an age-verification process. Other restrictions would include a ban on the use of social media by anyone under the age of 18 between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., regardless of parental approval.
“That’s huge that Utah is leading out on this effort,” said Cox, according to the Deseret News. He stamped another bill into law Thursday, HB 311, which would open the door for people to sue social media companies they believe harmed a minor or caused them to develop a dependency. “We have lots of states that are interested, and I know we’re all having conversations with other governors, other legislators, and other states. I suspect that you will see lots of bills like these moving forward.”
The bills in Utah—where Republicans hold a supermajority in the state legislature—are a culmination of the party’s ongoing distaste for social media companies, which Republicans have long accused of censoring conservatives. Other red states, including Texas and Ohio, are also weighing restrictions on the use of social media by children and teens. Last month, Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, even introduced legislation that would prohibit Americans under 16 from accessing social media platforms.
Perhaps the closest analog to such constraints exists in China, where TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, Douyin, offers a “youth mode” that prevents users who are under 14 from using the app for more than 40 minutes at a time. Similar to the Utah law, Douyin bars minors from accessing the app between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Back in the US, TikTok came under sharp congressional scrutiny Thursday, when CEO Shou Zi Chew was called to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to address concerns about the app, as reported by my colleague Charlotte Klein. “Your platform should be banned,” Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee’s Republican chair, told Chew, before claiming that the app harms “our innocent children” and can promote “suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders.” Representative Buddy Carter, a Georgia Republican, went so far as to describe TikTok as a psychological-warfare operation being used by the Chinese government to subvert and “deliberately influence US children.”
Chew, for his part, insisted that the company vigilantly moderates content that could negatively affect young people. “While the vast majority of people on TikTok are over 18, and one of our fastest growing demographics are people over 35, we spent a lot of time adopting measures to protect teenagers,” he said.
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