EPIC Commends California Legislature for Regulating Addictive Social Media Design Instead of Banning Minors’ Access

The California Legislature passed A.B. 1709, a bill that prohibits social media platforms from making addictive design features available to users under 16 years old.

A.B. 1709 began as a complete ban on youth social media access. EPIC, in close partnership with youth online safety advocates, worked with lawmakers to amend the bill to preserve youth access to digital social spaces while ensuring platforms are designed with kids’ safety in mind. EPIC submitted a letter to the California Senate Privacy Committee in June urging these amendments.

EPIC strongly supports social media regulations to keep kids safe online and to protect consumers from manipulative and addictive design practices. But flatly banning minors from platforms is not the right way to go about this. 

A.B. 1709 as passed is both more constitutionally sound and more likely to be effective at keeping young people safe online than legislation banning minors from accessing social media platforms.

“With AB 1709, California takes the right approach to protecting kids online,” said Megan Iorio, Director of EPIC’s Platform Governance & Accountability Program. “Design features that manipulate kids are the problem. Prohibiting these features, as AB 1709 does, provides a solution that is effective and does not infringe on kids’ rights to access digital spaces.”

EPIC is grateful for the California Legislature, particularly Assemblymember Lowenthal and his staff, for taking such a thoughtful approach to kids’ online safety and for incorporating both young people’s online experiences and EPIC’s legal expertise in constitutional online safety regulation into this important legislation.

EPIC recently published our model Age-Appropriate Design Code that reflects a constitutional way to protect kids online by prohibiting addictive design features for minors, giving them control over their privacy, and preventing companies from designing to promote compulsive use.