USU students, faculty respond to new social media restriction laws 

Gov. Spencer J. Cox signed two bills into law on March 23 — both of which will provide several social media restrictions starting March 1, 2024.   

Utah is the first state in the nation to provide such restrictions.  

SB152, sponsored by Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, will provide restrictions that involve age verification and permission from parents before minor users can operate any social media accounts.  

It also provides a “bedtime” restriction prohibiting minors from using social media between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., unless their parents change the settings.  

Hailey Johnson, a psychology major at Utah State University, expressed her conflicting feelings.  

“I think it’s good because social media is really bad for children and teenagers’ mental health. But at the same time — it kind of seems a little fascist, not going to lie,” Johnson said.  

It’s not just the time and age restrictions that have raised concerns from students and social media companies.  

SB152 prohibits companies from collecting certain information from minors — and HB311, sponsored by Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, prohibits social media companies from providing any “design or feature” that will addict minors to their platform.  

According to HB311, if these platforms violate this law by providing the design or features, they could be liable for civil fines up to $250,000.  

“This is something that is killing our kids. It’s the addictive qualities of social media that are intentionally being placed by these companies to get our kids addicted, and they know it’s harming them,” Cox said at a conference on March 16.  

NetChoice, a company representing Amazon, Google and other Meta Platforms, expressed concerns that the two new laws would violate the First Amendment. On March 21, the company opened a litigation center.  

Cox, however, said he is “not going to back down from a potential legal challenge when these companies are killing our kids.”   

Johnson disagreed with the legislation.  

“It’s really up to the parents. It really shouldn’t be a state thing where they put regulations; I think it should just be a household-by-household kind of thing,” Johnson said.  

Matthew LaPlante, a USU journalism and communications professor, expressed his worries that the law could create several problems, including the need for parents to hand over IDs and home addresses to prove their family resides in Utah.  

“It is troublesome in the way that (the legislation) will be carried out because we don’t have a plan for carrying it out. And that includes, troublingly, who is going to be the custodian of these precious records,” LaPlante said.  

The CEO of nonprofit organization Connect Safety, Larry Magid, even argued in an opinion piece that SB152 could create compromises in data privacy.  

“SB 152 would require companies to keep a ‘record of any submissions provided under the requirements,’ which means there would not only be databases of all social media users, but also of users under 18, which could be hacked by criminals or foreign governments seeking information on Utah children and adults,” Magid said. 

LaPlante expressed the concern that the legislation won’t be effective in preventing social media use among minors.  

“If students, young people, do not get their parents’ permission, do we really think that they’re going to be avoiding social media?” LaPlante said. “No, they are going to be doing social media now against their parents’ permission, which means even more secretively than they are now — that’s not healthy.”  

Teuscher said he hopes the rest of the nation will follow Utah’s lead with the social media restrictions. LaPlante, on the other hand, raised skepticism.  

“In this case, I do believe it may be a little while before other states follow suit, particularly if social media companies — as they are almost guaranteed to do — do indeed file suit,” LaPlante said. “Other states are going to let Utah bear the brunt of that. I think we may be leading out a little further than we want to right now, but that’s what leadership requires.”   

-Jenny.Carpenter@usu.edu

Graphic by Scott Hayes