A newbillcoming down the pike in the California State Department legislature could be a Brobdingnagian swing in precedent for parents ’ power to process troupe for what some consider addictive online mental object .
The Social Media Platform Duty to Children Act passed the state assembly on Monday and now go to the province senate . The bill cites the framework of the existing California Consumer Privacy Act , which restrain companionship from selling personal info of young people under 16 , to impose a “ duty not to hook ” young users under 18 . A successful cause could match up to $ 25,000 in damages .
The bill only applies to company that made $ 100 million in tax revenue over the past year , and it also excludes streaming services as well as apps that only allow email or textbook electronic messaging . Everything else is fair game .

Photo: Ilina Yuliia (Shutterstock)
Lawmakers pointed to theFacebook Papers , where internal written document show workers at the social medium ship’s company were concerned about the wallop they were feature on youthfulness . Whistleblower Frances Haugen , a former Facebook data scientist , say the highest rate of addiction on their platform was with 14 - class - olds .
The bank bill ’s advocates from place such as theChildren ’s Advocacy Instituteat the University of San Diego say that paternal ascendancy ca n’t be the solution to dependance , comparing it to tobacco companies giving parent nicotine patch to have them halt addiction . A recentstudyfrom the nonprofit research group Common Sense Media showed that there was a 17 % addition in screen - time for adolescent and tweens over the last two years . The study further says social media use of kids senesce 8 to 12 has increased from 31 % in 2019 to 38 % in 2021 . The Brobdingnagian majority of stripling have used social media .
The bill define addiction as people who are harm either physically , mentally , or emotionally , who want to stop but find they ca n’t because of the political program ’s nature .

Trade groups are n’t for it , of course . APreported that TechNet , a electronic internet of tech executive , wrote a letter to California legislators saying that the platforms would effectively have to blackball all kidskin under 18 and would require them to “ implement stringent age - verification so as to insure that adolescents did not practice their site . ”
If the nib becomes police force , companies would have from Jan. 1 next year until April 1 to remove characteristic view as “ addictive ” or jeopardy cause . Companies that conduct quarterly self - audits of their practices to absent addicting feature would also be immune to lawsuits . The purport government note ’s text does not elaborate on what entity would brush up whether companies were take out the so - called “ habit-forming ” feature article , nor does it expatiate which specific features of these platforms are consider most addictive .
But despite what may be a noble finish , California ’s bill is in strange company . In a way of life , it ’s interchangeable to bills passed in Texas and Florida that allow people to sue societal medium troupe , though in their case for moderating user ’s post content or account . Florida’santi - social lawhas been stamped down by the courts , but separate judges lifted a temporary injunction on theTexas law . business deal chemical group represent social media and technical school companies have filedan appealto the U.S. Supreme Court .

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