California Passes Sweeping Social Media Law Focused on Child Safety
By Movieguide® Contributor
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that will help parents regulate their children’s social media use and make the tech less addictive.
The law requires that social media platforms offer a way to turn off their algorithm, showing users a feed or chronological posts that only come from followed pages. This uncurated feed would be on by default for minors.
Furthermore, social media apps will be disallowed from sending minors notifications from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays during the school year. This feature will only be able to be turned off with a parent or guardian’s consent.
“Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night,” Newsom told the Associated Press. “With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits.”
The passing of this law in California mirrors a larger effort across the country to protect children from the addictive nature of social media. At the beginning of the summer, U.S. Attorney General Vivek Murthy recommended Congress impose a Surgeon General’s Warning on social media for the undeniable negative impact the tech has on minors’ mental health.
“I’m looking at what’s taking place online, on social media in particular and I’m worried about all of our kids,” Murthy told Fox News in June. “The warning label I’m calling for is one part of a larger set of strategies that we need to put in place to, not only warn parents about these harms but ultimately make social media safer for kids.”
Murthy’s recommendation was strongly supported by 42 state attorneys general who endorsed the warning in a letter to Congress earlier in September.
California’s new law is one of multiple across the country that will go into effect in the coming years, aimed at protecting the younger generations from these addictions. As these laws begin to curb social media’s hold on our children’s attention, hopefully, rates of anxiety and depression will begin to fall as well.
The California law will go into effect in 2027.
Movieguide® previously reported on social media regulation:
A day after Dr. Murthy’s announcement, California Governor Gavin Newsom revealed he plans to introduce legislation to ban children’s use of smartphones during the school day.
“As the surgeon general affirmed, social media is harming the mental health of our youth,” Newsom told POLITICO. “Building on legislation I signed in 2019, I look forward to working with the Legislature to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day. When children and teens are in school, they should be focused on their studies — not their screens.”
Legislature to this effect has been supported by both political parties, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis endorsed similar legislation last year. While big tech has long had free reign due to the size of the industry’s wallet, Congress’s intention to finally hold these companies accountable for their actions has perhaps best been shown through the TikTok ban, which found near-unanimous support earlier this year.
While national security was at the heart of the ban, another major problem fueling the legislation was the numerous TikTok “challenges” that have harmed or killed thousands of kids. While TikTok is aware of these challenges — because they garner millions of views as they become popular —it rarely intervenes to prevent children from getting hurt by them.
