In the past year, four states—Utah, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas—have passed social-media parental- consent laws based on ideas put forward in a joint report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center and In- stitute for Family Studies, titled “Protecting Teens from Big Tech” (August 2022). These laws have important differences. Some include requiring full parental access or certain parental tools, some limit certain features for minor accounts, and others provide expansive exemptions. The upshot of this is that some laws are strong- er than others. Evaluating the different provisions is important, as these laws are being challenged in court. In light of recent litigation and other states’ desires to pass similar laws, Clare Morell, Adam Candeub, and Michael Toscano have put together a model bill for states to use, drawing on aspects of Utah’s initial legisla- tion and incorporating key edits and provisions—based on the recent injunction against Arkansas’s law—to strengthen it against legal challenges.
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