EPIC Testifies in Support of Vermont Age Appropriate Design Code

EPIC Counsel Suzanne Bernstein testified before the Vermont Senate Committee on Institutions on February 18 in support of S. 69, the Vermont Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC). Read EPIC’s written testimony here. In her testimony, Suzanne illustrated how the Vermont AADC would protect kids’ privacy, enhance kids’ autonomy, and ensure their online safety by prohibiting abusive data and design practices. It does not ban minors from social media, nor does it not block minors from accessing any type of content.

The Vermont AADC provides covered minors with autonomy and choice over their online activity by requiring covered businesses to configure all default privacy settings to the highest level of privacy for covered minors, including settings to limit unwanted adult contact and push notifications. The bill would also require transparency around automated recommendation features and service features that use personal data of covered minors.

Similar to laws regulating “addictive feeds” in New York and California, the Vermont AADC would ensure that personalized feeds instead honor kids’ express preferences and would not be driven by surveillance data. Additionally, the bill future-proofs how it regulates “dark patterns” by requiring the Attorney General to, at least once every two years, update rules prohibiting data processing or design practices that “lead to compulsive use or subvert or impair user autonomy, decision making, or choice.”

In addition to rulemaking to prohibit abusive data and design practices, the Vermont AADC also requires the Attorney General to issue rules about how covered businesses can use age assurance to determine whether a user is a minor.

EPIC regularly advocates for privacy for minors online and platform accountability and governance policies that protect the speech, privacy, anti-discrimination, and safety rights of internet users, including minors. In court, EPIC has filed amicus briefs in cases involving the intersection of privacy, kids’ safety, and First Amendment. EPIC also filed extensive comments about age assurance best practices in the New York Attorney General’s rulemaking to implement the NY SAFE for Kids Act.