What Utah is proposing during this session in two bills is to set guidelines for adults and children who use social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, etc.).
With the exception of a few States, just about every Legislature for every State has convened for its regular session for 2023. Two particular bills that are being sponsored in Utah has caught national attention: Senate Bill 152 “Utah Social Media Regulation Act” sponsored by Senator Michael K. McKell and House Bill 311 “Social Media Usage Amendments” sponsored by Rep. Jordan Teuscher. While these bills are only being sponsored in Utah, many are fearful that, if passed, could set a precedent for other States to follow.
What Utah is proposing during this session in both of these bills is to set guidelines for adults and children who use social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, etc.). Many children and teenagers these days access a plethora of social media platforms, with and without their parents knowledge. What this bill would do is make it so that parents would have to provide their government issued ID and physical address before a child under the age of 18 could access a social media site. This includes even if they access the site at school for school use. It would also restrict minors from being on social media from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Adults would also have to upload their government issued ID before accessing the platforms, as verification of proof that they are over the age of 18.
Larry Magid, a child safety advocate, recently spoke out against the bills via an op-ed in the Mercury News. He believes that the bills would deny basic rights to children and adults no matter how well-intentioned they are. He believes that children have the right to express themselves through social media and that they wouldn’t be able to do so as freely as they might otherwise do if they knew that their ID’s were linked to whatever they were viewing or saying. Under the proposed bill, social media companies would be required to keep a database of all users and record any and all activity by the user. Magid, however, believes that would create an environment for criminals to gain access to the database and obtain information on the children and adults who are signed up.
While Magrid believes that protecting children is important, he feels like it should be done in a way that does not put them, their information, or their parents information, at risk. Nor should the protection violate any basic right to speech or privacy.
On February 14, 2023, the Utah Senate voted in favor of passing the bill 28-1. However, there have been changes to the original language of the bill with the ID requirement no longer being required for age verification. Instead, a substitute bill was introduced for purposes of allowing social media companies to work with the State to come up with an age verification system. That bill will be introduced in 2024.
