The Utah law banning youth from social media has been recalled while a new bill goes through the legislature to replace it. This bill no longer requires parental consent for children to use social media, but it does require limits on what children can access, as well as a verification process to confirm the age of the users.
Excerpt from www.insideprivacy.com
On March 7, Utah repealed and replaced its Social Media Regulation Act, which had previously been challenged in a pair of lawsuits by NetChoice and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. The replacement legislation is spread across two enacted bills, SB 194 and HB 464. SB 194 contains the bulk of the legislation’s general provisions, while HB 464 includes a private right of action for certain harms associated with a minor’s use of algorithmically curated social media….
- Scope. The laws apply to “social media companies,” entities that “own or operate[] a social media service.” A “social media service” is any “public website or application” that (i) displays content “primarily generated” by account holders, (ii) permits individuals to register as account holders and create profiles visible to the public or to users specified by the account holder, (iii) “connects account holders to allow users to interact socially with each other” within the service, (iv) enables each account holder to view a list of other account holders “with whom the account holder shares a connection within the system,” and (v) allows account holders to post content viewable by others. The definition of a social media service does not include email, cloud storage, or document viewing, sharing, or collaboration services. The provisions described below generally apply to “Utah minor account holders,” Utah residents who are under the age of 18.
- Age assurance and parental consent. The Social Media Regulation Act required age verification of new and existing Utah account holders and prohibited allowing individuals under the age of 18 to hold an account without express parental consent. Instead, SB 194 requires that social media companies implement an age assurance system to determine whether the individual is a minor. This determination must be made using measures “reasonably calculated” to determine whether an account holder is a minor “with an accuracy rate of at least 95%,” and an account holder must be permitted to request review of the determination. SB 194 does notrequire that individuals determined to be minors secure parental consent to create or access an account. However, parental consent would be required before certain functionality could be used. SB 194 also requires rulemaking to determine appropriate means of performing age assurance and securing verifiable parental consent, and social media companies that implement mechanisms that comply with such rules will benefit from safe harbor protections.