Controversial Social Media Bill Signed into Law in California

Despite opposition from both the tech industry and civil rights groups, California has enacted a law that will impose restrictions on how social media can interact with children (under 18).  Among other things, social media may not send notifications during certain hours, and must present contents of covered users' feeds in chronological order (rather than by order of relevance as determined by an algorithm).  The parent or guardian of the user may alter the default settings.

WHY IT MATTERS

The new law is proffered as a measure to protect children against harmful effects of always-on, curated content designed to engage them.  Many states, and Congress, are trying to figure out how to regulate in this area due to mental health concerns regarding social media and its impact on minors.  Several states have passed or tried to pass such laws; Congress has two bills pending.  Just this month, however, a federal court has overturned a Utah social media law due to lack of evidence that social media harms children's mental health.  In other words, regulators and courts have not reached consensus on whether and how social media affects children, what ages are most vulnerable, and how to balance the rights of platform operators against government overreach.  This is likely to be a subject of dispute for years to come.  Meantime, any company that engages with under-18s would do well to know what information it collects and processes and how to segregate or delete such information if it is likely to be subject to any of these bills.