Utah governor replaces social media laws for youth as state faces lawsuits
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s governor has approved an overhaul of social media laws designed to protect children, as the state fends off multiple lawsuits challenging their constitutionality.
Republican legislative leaders announced at the start of this year’s 45-day work session that they would prioritize overhauling a pair of policies passed last year that imposed strict restrictions on children accessing social media. Two bills signed this week by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox effectively repeal these “first in the nation” laws and replace them with language that their sponsors say should hold up in court.
The new laws require social media companies to verify the ages of their users and disable certain features on accounts owned by Utah youth. Default privacy settings for small accounts should limit access to direct messages and sharing features and disable elements like autoplay and push notifications that lawmakers say could lead to overuse.
Lawmakers have scrapped the requirement that parents agree to their child opening an account after many expressed concerns that they would have to enter too much personal information that could compromise their online safety.
Parents can still access their children’s accounts under the new laws, and they have grounds to sue a social media company if their child’s mental health deteriorates due to overuse of an algorithmically curated app. Social media companies must meet a long list of requirements to avoid liability.
Cox applauded Republican lawmakers behind the new laws for combating what he considers “the scourge that social media has unleashed on the mental health of our youth.”
The revisions mark the latest step in a yearslong sparring match between Utah and social media giants TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Just months after Utah became the first state to pass laws regulating children’s use of social media, it sued both tech giants for allegedly luring children with addictive traits.
NetChoice, a trade group representing TikTok, Meta and other global social media companies, subsequently sued Utah over its original laws in December 2023, prompting lawmakers to rush to pass bills that limit their reach and delay their enactment.
Spokespeople for TikTok and Meta did not respond Friday to requests for comment on the new state laws.
Meanwhile, Congress is putting pressure on TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell its stake or face a possible U.S. ban. The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would give the company an ultimatum over concerns that its current ownership structure poses a threat to national security. The bill now heads to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear.
In Utah, social media companies will be banned from collecting and selling data tied to small accounts, and the state’s consumer protection department will set guidelines for how these companies should verify a user’s age and identity without revealing too much personal data. collect.
Starting Oct. 1, companies like TikTok will face another choice: impose a curfew on minors’ accounts or have little legal defense against families who say the app has harmed their children.
The laws shift the burden of proof from families to social media companies, requiring them to prove that their algorithmically curated content did not cause, in whole or in part, a child’s depression, anxiety or self-harming behavior. However, the laws give companies more legal protections if they limit the use of their app by minors in Utah to three hours in a 24-hour period, require parental consent for children to create accounts and impose a social media blackout. out for youth statewide set between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 am
Companies will have to pay a minimum of $10,000 in damages for each instance of an adverse mental health outcome.
Cox also signed hundreds more bills this week, including several that Republican sponsors said are aimed at improving the safety of children in Utah. These include bills to fund firearms training for teachers and create new legal protections for clergy who report child abuse.