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California Bill Would Hold Tech Companies Liable for Kids’ Social Media Addiction

Companies will have to shell out big bucks.

By Karly Wood March 15, 2022

California wants to urge companies who make social media platforms directed at children to be more responsible. Lawmakers have joined together and introduced a bill that seeks to hold technology companies liable for social media addictions and would let parents sue in certain situations.

Introduced by both Republican and Democrat State Assembly members Jordan Cunningham and Buffy Wicks, the bill is called the Social Media Platform Duty to Children’s Act. If passed, the bill would put the onus on social media platforms not to use techniques that addict children and to hold them responsible for damages and penalties in the event that harmful effects are found as a result of social media addiction.

photo: Jeremy Bezanger via Unsplash

Under the bill, parents and guardians would be able to sue companies who caused addiction by their use of push notifications, ads and design features that encouraged repetitive use (especially for adolescent girls). Even if a company’s intent was not to cause addiction it will still be held accountable under the law, if passed.

In a recent Washington Street Journal article, Cunningham shares the new bill will make companies “bear some of the social costs that they put on all of our children.” The Social Media Platform Duty to Children’s Act is the first-in-the-nation state legislation that uses financial responsibility to discourage social media companies from using methods that lead to addiction for children.

Ed Howard, Senior Counsel at the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law states, “We shouldn’t have to put in law that some of the most profitable corporations in the world have a duty to be kind to children, have a duty not to make addicts of children. But here we are. We have to.” The organization has sponsored the bill alongside the two lawmakers.

Now that it has been introduced, the bill will be heard in the Assembly Judiciary Committee this spring.

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