California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed bill that will prohibit social media platforms from knowingly providing addictive feeds to minors without parental consent.
The new law will take effect in 2027 and will completely change how minors interact with platforms like TikTok, which sends them content based on content they have shared or what the algorithm has gleaned about them.
TikTok had already set a default time limit for users under 18 years old, but this was fairly easy for users to get around. This bill sees steps set in law to counter social media addiction.
Redefining What Minors See
Bill SB976 makes it illegal for feeds like the TikTok “For You” page to exist for minors in its current format. Instead, their feeds will simply be a chronological listing of posts from the people that they have actually followed.
The law will also restrict when social media platforms can send alerts to minors. Without parental consent, minors will not receive any notifications between 12-6am, and between 8am and 3 pm on weekdays during the school year.
This just in! View
the top business tech deals for 2024 👨💻
Breaking Destructive Habits
Newsom said in a statement made to Associated Press:
“Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night. With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits.”
There is a slight loophole, though. If the social media platform does not know that the user is a minor, the rules can’t be enforced. However, the authors of the bill have suggested that age verification rules will need to be put into place for when the law kicks in; as well as parental consent regulations.
‘Aggressive Action’
This latest bill follows on from a law Newsom signed in 2022, which barred social media platforms from essentially mining children’s personal information in ways that could hurt them physically or mentally. It was a first in the US.
California is leading the way in legislating and Newsom, as a father of four, seems to be a driving force. As he said in 2022: “We’re taking aggressive action in California to protect the health and wellbeing of our kids.”
The Perils of Social Media for Children
In June, United States Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, called for there to be a surgeon general’s warning on social media platforms in an opinion piece in the New York Times.
He also called for more research into the mental health impacts of social media on young people, including how much it disrupts sleep and exercise.
Organizations including Yale Medicine have published lengthy guides for parents on social media use. However, the onus remains on parents to monitor usage and sees them fighting a well-honed algorithm, which is demanding their children’s attention.
This Californian law places more responsibility with the social media platforms, but there will, no doubt, be scores of children who quickly figure out a workaround. There is also the chance that TikTok might not even exist in the US in 2027, but there will always be plenty of alternatives.
