California social media addiction bill drops parent lawsuits

A bill in the California Legislature to make social media companies liable for addicting children has changed

A first-of-its-kind proposal in the California Legislature aimed at holding social media companies responsible for harming children who have become addicted to their products would no longer let parents sue popular platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

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The revised proposal would still make social media companies liable for damages of up to $250,000 per violation for using features they know can cause children to become addicted. But it would only let prosecutors, not parents, file the lawsuits against social media companies. The legislation was amended last month, CalMatters reported Thursday.

The bill’s author, Republican Assembly member Jordan Cunningham, said he made the change to make sure the bill had enough votes to pass in the state Senate, where he said a number of lawmakers were “nervous about creating new types of lawsuits.”

“They get afraid it will open the floodgates to frivolous claims,” Cunningham said. “They seem to be more comfortable letting this be handled by the public prosecutors, who already end up taking the lead on this kind of consumer protection type stuff.”

While the revised bill might win more votes in the state Legislature, it hasn’t won over social media companies, many of which are based in California and remain opposed. TechNet, a group of technology CEOs and senior executives, says it is nearly impossible to separate social media content — words, photos and videos uploaded by people — from the features companies use to deliver that content, including things like push notifications, newsfeed, and the ability to scroll endlessly through posts.

“I think that violates our First Amendment rights and the editorial discretion that we have,” said Dylan Hoffman, TechNet’s executive director for California and the Southwest. “It doesn’t make sense to identify the feature when it’s the content underlying it that may cause the problem.”