Take Action – Proposed New Legislation to Keep Kids Safe Online
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Senator Nancy Skinner (D–Berkeley), and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) have just announced landmark legislation designed to protect kids online.
Bonta is sponsoring the two bills authored by Skinner and Wicks, Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) and the California Children’s Data Privacy Act (AB 1949), to limit the harms of social media addiction and strengthen protections for kids’ privacy.
“Social media companies have shown us time and time again that for profits, they are willing to harness addictive content to target a vulnerable population: our children,” said Bonta in a press release.
“Social media companies have designed their platforms to addict users, especially our kids. Countless studies show that once a young person has a social media addiction, they experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem,” said Senator Skinner.
Helping prevent social media addiction – CA SB 976
What would the CA Senate bill do? SB 976 is designed to help prevent social media addiction, a growing problem among youth. The bill would give parents the choice of whether their minor children would receive a chronological feed from users they already follow or the algorithmic feed that is currently the default. The problem with algorithmic feeds is that they are addictive, causing users to spend long periods of time on an app. The amount of time young people spend scrolling matters. A body of research shows links between social media and declining mental health, especially among girls. In particular, heavy social media use can cause mental health harms to young people.
The bill would also give parent and guardians the option of halting social media notifications and blocking their children’s access to platforms during the school day and at night.
Protecting kids’ privacy online – preventing businesses from collecting & sharing their personal information – AB 1949
What would the CA Assembly bill do? AB 1949 “is a crucial step in our work to close the gaps in our privacy laws that have allowed tech giants to exploit and monetize our kids’ sensitive data with impunity,” said Assemblymember Wicks.
AB 1949 builds upon the protections of data privacy rights of children under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). CCPA strengthens privacy rights for California consumers, such as the right to know what personal information businesses collect and sell, and the right to stop the sale of that information to third parties.
As it stands, CCPA contains unfortunate loopholes: it does not protect 17-year-olds, nor does it limit businesses from collecting or exploiting the data of young platform users, so long as they companies do not sell it. According to the press release, “This critical gap has allowed companies like Google and Meta to collect, exploit, and monetize young users’ data on a massive scale.”
Despite knowing children use their products, businesses currently design their services and platforms without regard to children’s safety. Many of those business practices are harmful, such as manipulating children into divulging additional personal information or designing features to get users to engage online for hours on end.
AB 1949 would amend the CCPA to “prohibit businesses from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone under the age of 18, unless they receive informed consent or unless doing so is strictly necessary for the purpose of the business.” If the user is 13 years old or younger, businesses must obtain parental consent. The bill comes with teeth, authorizing the “the Office of the Attorney General to enforce the law and seek injunctive relief, damages, or civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation.”
Make Your Voice Heard
If you have thoughts on either of these proposed pieces of legislation, you can write, email or call your elected representatives. Find your California representatives here. You can look up your district’s assemblymember and state senator by your address.
Read the Office of the Attorney General’s press release here.
Photo by Sergey Zolkin on Unsplash