The new legislation will also grant access to parents or guardians to their children’s posts. Minors will also be unable to access their accounts between 10.30 p.m. and 6.30 a.m. unless a parent agrees to relax the time restriction.
In Utah, people under the age of 18 will require the consent of a parent or guardian to use social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
It is the first state in the United States to pass such legislation, which attempts to protect youngsters from “addictive” platforms amid accusations that such apps harm children’s mental health.
The two new measures, which the tech sector opposes, would grant parents or guardians access to their children’s social media posts.
Minors will also be unable to access their accounts between 10.30 p.m. and 6.30 a.m. unless a parent agrees to relax the time restriction.
The legislation are also intended to make it simpler for people to sue social media corporations if their children think the platforms have damaged them.
The regulation as a whole aims to prevent children from being drawn to apps by addictive features and from being targeted with advertisements.
TikTok, Snapchat, and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, generate the majority of their money by targeting advertisements to their users.
Social media titans are preparing to resist laws.
The new limits will not go into force until March 1, 2024, but social media giants are anticipated to file a lawsuit before that date.
“We’re no longer willing to let social media businesses continue to destroy our youth’s mental health,” Utah Republican governor Spencer Cox, who signed the two measures, tweeted.
“Utah is setting the standard for holding social media firms responsible, and we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”
According to Mr. Cox, research have indicated that youngsters who spend too much time on social media have “bad mental health consequences.”
Lobbyists for the technology sector slammed the legislation as unlawful, claiming they violate people’s First Amendment rights to free expression online.
“Utah will soon require online services to collect sensitive information about teens and families, such as government-issued IDs and birth certificates, not only to verify ages, but to verify parental relationships, putting their private data at risk,” said Nicole Saad Bembridge, an associate director at NetChoice, a tech lobby group.
Could other states in the United States follow suit?
Jim Steyer, the founder of Common Sense Media, an organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children and families, applauded the attempt to limit the addictive qualities of social media and establish standards for litigation.
He stated that it “provides momentum for other jurisdictions to hold social media firms accountable to ensuring kids around the country are safe online.”
Giving parents access to their children’s social media posts, he claims, would “deprive them of the online privacy rights we argue for.”
Age verification and parental consent may make it difficult for youngsters to create accounts on certain platforms, but they do little to prevent corporations from gathering their data once they are on, according to Mr Steyer.
The impact of social media on children is a developing national controversy in the United States.
Utah’s law was signed on the same day TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress regarding the platform’s effects on kids’ mental health, among other things.
TikTok boasts 150 million American users but is under increased scrutiny from US authorities.
The company has been dogged by concerns that because it is owned by the Chinese government, user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government or be used to push narratives favourable to the country’s communist leaders.
