Utah: limits the use of social networks to minors

The new law on the use of social networks in Utah, USA, passed this week is an ambitious attempt to protect children and adolescents from the harmful effects of social networks and give parents more power to decide whether minors should use applications such as TikTok or Instagram

What is unclear is whether and how the new rules will be enforced and whether they will have unintended consequences for children and adolescents who are already facing a mental health crisis. And while parental rights are a central issue in Utah’s new laws, experts have noted that parental rights and children’s well-being don’t always align.

For example, allowing parents to read their children’s private messages could be harmful to some children, and age verification requirements could allow tech companies to access children’s personal information, such as their biometrics, if they use features like facial recognition to check age.

“Children may be at greater risk if these laws are enforced in a way that doesn’t allow them some privacy, if they don’t allow for some capacity for free expression or autonomy,” said Kris Perry, executive director of the nonprofit Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development.

Laws, which go into effect in a year, impose digital curfews on users under 18, require minors to obtain parental permission to subscribe to social media apps and require companies to verify the age of all Utah users.

They are also requiring tech companies to allow parents access to their children’s private accounts and messages, raising concerns among child advocates who say this could further harm children’s mental health by depriving them of their right to privacy. This is especially true for LGBTQ+ children whose parents do not accept their identity.

The rules could dramatically transform how people in this conservative state use social media and the internet and, if successful, serve as a model for other states to enact similar laws. But even if the laws outweigh the inevitable demands of tech companies, it’s unclear how Utah will be able to implement them.

For example, age verification. There are several measures for verifying a person’s age on the Internet. Someone could upload official ID and authorize the use of facial recognition software to prove they are of the age she claims to be.

“Some of these verification measures are wonderful, but then they also require the collection of sensitive data. And that can pose new risks, especially for marginalized youth,” Perry said. “And it also places a new kind of burden on parents to control their children. new risks that may arise in terms of collecting additional data on children”.

Just as teenagers have managed to obtain fake IDs for drinking alcohol, they are also adept at violating age guidelines online.

“In Southeast Asia, they’ve been trying for years, decades, and the kids always succeed,” said Gaia Bernstein, author of “Unwired,” a book about battling technology addiction.

The problem is, Utah rules don’t require social networks to block kids from connecting. Instead, they leave this responsibility in the hands of the parents.

“I think that’s going to be the weak link in the whole thing, because kids drive their parents crazy,” Bernstein said. There is no precedent in the United States for such a drastic regulation of social networks, although several states are preparing similar regulations.

At the federal level, companies are already prohibited from collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. For this reason, social media platforms already prohibit anyone under 13 from registering on their sites, but children can easily break the rules, with or without parental consent.