California will introduce a pair of bills designed to protect children from social media addiction and protect their personal information. Youth Against Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) and the California Children’s Information Privacy Act (AB 1949) presented Monday by state Attorney General Rob Bonta, state Sen. Nancy Skinner and Assemblywoman Buffy Weeks. The proposed bill a CA child safety bill it was supposed to go into effect this year, but now on the line.
SB 976 would empower parents to remove addictive algorithmic feeds from their children’s social feeds. If passed, it would allow parents of children under 18 to choose between a default algorithmic feed – typically designed to create profitable addictions — and less habit-forming chronological. It will also allow parents to block all social media notifications and prevent their children from accessing social platforms at night and during school hours.
“Social media companies have designed their platforms for addicted users, especially our children. Countless studies show that when a young person has a social media addiction, they experience higher levels of depression, anxiety and lower self-esteem,” California Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) wrote in a press release. “We’ve waited long enough for social media companies to act. SB 976 is needed now to create sensible guardrails so that parents can protect their children from these preventable harms.
At the same time, the EU will attempt to strengthen data privacy for children under 18 in the 1949 CA. The bill’s language gives the state’s consumers the right to know what personal information social media companies collect and sell, and allows them to prevent their children’s information from being sold to third parties. Any exceptions require “informed consent” from a parent for children under 13.
In addition, it will close loopholes in the EU 1949 California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Failing to effectively protect the information of 17-year-olds. The CCPA reserves its strongest protections for those under 16.
“This bill is an important step in our work to close loopholes in our privacy laws that allow tech giants to exploit and monetize our children’s sensitive information with impunity,” Wicks (D-Oakland) wrote.
Bills may coincide with a US Senate hearings (featuring five Big Tech CEOs) on Wednesday covering children’s online safety. In addition, California is part of a coalition of 41 states He sued Meta in October because it harms children’s mental health. The Wall Street Journal informed In 2021, the same internal Meta (then Facebook) documents described “intermediates” as a “valuable but untapped audience.”
