California Social Media Addiction Bill Drops Parent Lawsuit

WHO’S MINDING THE KIDS? –

July 14, 2022 – “They get afraid it will open the floodgates to frivolous claims,” Cunningham said. “They seem to be more comfortable letting this be handled by the public prosecutors, who already end up taking the lead on this kind of consumer protection type stuff.”

While the revised bill might win more votes in the state Legislature, it hasn’t won over social media companies, many of which are based in California and remain opposed. TechNet, a group of technology CEOs and senior executives, says it is nearly impossible to separate social media content — words, photos and videos uploaded by people — from the features companies use to deliver that content, including things like push notifications, newsfeed and the ability to scroll endlessly through posts. “I think that violates our First Amendment rights and the editorial discretion that we have,” said Dylan Hoffman, TechNet’s executive director for California and the Southwest. “It doesn’t make sense to identify the feature when it’s the content underlying it that may cause the problem.”

Hoffman said social media companies have introduced lots of new features to address what he called the “a really difficult and complex issue” of children’s use of social media. Many platforms let parents set time limits for their children or disable certain features.