Ben Horsley, Granite School District chief of staff, speaks regarding the social media regulation bill SB152 in Senate Business and Labor committee meeting at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. A Utah Senate committee advanced a bill that would require social media companies to set age limits for creating accounts. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
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SALT LAKE CITY — A Senate committee took the first steps toward regulating social media platforms in the state, advancing a bill that would require minors to get parental consent before signing up for social accounts.
SB152 is one of several bills in the Utah Legislature aimed at tech giants this year, after Gov. Spencer Cox made social media regulation one of his top issues ahead of the legislative session. Earlier this month, Cox threatened to regulate social media companies due to the alleged harm to children and announced plans to sue major tech platforms last week.
Cox’s brother-in-law, Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, is sponsoring the bill, which would require social media companies to use age verification to prevent minors from signing up without their parent’s permission and would prohibit companies from collecting or selling personal data of minors.
“I want to dispel that myth that this age verification is the big bad government looking into our personal lives,” McKell said. “I think we have a clear problem and this is the solution that we think is best.”
Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton, who also serves as a senior adviser to the governor, cited several statistics that point to the potential harms of social media, including that 1 in 3 U.S. high school students have had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.
“As we look at mental health numbers, there’s a clear difference in what was happening before 2009 and what’s been happening since,” she said. “Parents know better than big tech what is best for their children.”
A handful of parents spoke in favor of the bill, along with representatives from the Utah Attorney General’s Office and advocacy groups like Utah Parents United and the Utah Eagle Forum. Several lawmakers used the committee hearing to further criticize big tech companies, accusing them of designing algorithms that are addictive and harmful to children.
“They create tools, evolve tools, and have enough data about our kids right now that, honestly, you probably know (kids’) preferences better than we do,” said Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, said in response to a spokesperson from the Computer and Communications Industry Association who spoke against the bill. “And I would say that Meta has done alarmingly little.”
Daniel Burton spoke in favor of the bill on behalf of the Utah Attorney General’s Office, which oversees a task force created to prevent crimes against child
