Proposed California bills venture into uncharted legal territory to regulate social media platforms.
According to a 2023 survey, teens spend an average of more than seven hours a day viewing content on phones and other devices. are receiving fierce pushback from tech industry lobbyists, who are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto the bills on the grounds that they are “constitutionally flawed.”
Both AB 3172 and SB 976 cleared their house of origin with bipartisan support and are on track to be passed once the state legislature resumes meeting in August. During previous hearings the Chamber of Progress and other tech industry groups such as TechNet and NetChoice vociferously opposed the bill.
“The truth of matter is that the mental health of young people is in the toilet,” said Lowenthal. “Suicide rates for youth are up 62% since 2011, eating disorders, anxiety and depression are off the charts. We are in a crisis and we’re requiring that these companies take responsibility for that.” “I think the murkiness around the applicability of the First Amendment in this area is not a reason not to sign it, because this area of law is unsettled and it’s always going to be unsettled until a case gets pushed through,” he said.“I think it’s absolutely a legitimate critique that this law seems to open the door to very heavy penalties without a lot of clarity on what will trigger those penalties or what appropriate standards of behavior we should expect from platforms,” he said.
He said this legal push is needed to incentivize new safety policies such as stringent age restrictions on inappropriate content — or otherwise companies won’t voluntarily make changes that could prompt users to move to another platform.
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