HB1275: Social Media Account Limits for Minors
(as introduced, by Representative Chad Caldwell)
In a nutshell, this bill is not directly an education bill but it will have some ancillary effects on schools, students, and parents/guardians. It seeks to limit minors under the age of 16 from having a social media account. Minors aged 16 or 17 will have to verify their age AND have permission from their parent/legal guardian to have an account on a social media platform. If passed as currently written, it would go into effect on July 1, 2025.
Lawsuits on social media use by minors
Back in October of 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed litigation against social media giant Meta (mainly Facebook and Instagram) based upon the harmful effects it has on youth. Class action lawsuits are being filed across the country by public school districts.
How does social media impact schools?
- Video and other social media noise disruptions in class
- Students’ distraction from class activities and learning
- Video posts and comments on activities by students in and outside of school, including student fights, conflicts, and/or embarrassing events or pranks
- Threats of violence being created, shared, or duplicated as a hoax in some cases resulting in lockdowns and evacuations from school
- Student anxiety about staying on top of social media activity of peers through the addictive elements of an endless scroll of information crafted through an algorithm to achieve that same goal
- Bullying and harassment through social media
More about HB 1275:
This bill creates new law under Title 25 which is a set of laws for “Definitions and General Provisions.” It would create a new category of law under that title which signals it didn’t fit within the School laws nor Children laws.
Section 1 provides the purpose for the new laws and background on the addictive nature of social media on youth. Minors are not developmentally ready to receive an onslaught of information in this way. Further, this creates a detriment to the mental health of youth. The use of social media is likened to other addictive activities like vaping or gambling.
Section 2 creates a law that is largely a list of definitions:
- Account holder
- Commercial entity
- Dark pattern
- Digitized identification card
- Fake identification
- Minor
- Oklahoma user
- Personal information
- Reasonable age verification
- Social media company – what it is and what it is not
- Social media platform – what it is and what it is not
- Substantial harm or privacy risk to minors
- User
Section 3 creates a law regarding age of minors and age verification:
- Social media company shall not permit an Oklahoma minor under 16 to have an account; those who are 16 or 17 must have express consent from a parent or guardian;
- Age will be verified and the social media company can use a third party vendor to verify using a digitized ID card, government-issued ID, etc.
Section 4 creates a law setting out responsibilities for a social media platform, including:
- Processing of personal information;
- Profiling protective measures;
- Collecting, selling, using, sharing or retaining personal information;
- Collecting geolocation data
- Use of dark patterns to get information out of minors that could lead to harm or invasion of privacy or could estimate age or age range to determine when the child would be no longer a minor; and
The last part of Section 4 grants authority to the Oklahoma Attorney General to hold the social media platform accountable for violations of the above.
Section 5 creates a law on the penalties for violations by a social media company and how the Oklahoma Attorney General could take action for monetary damages. This section also differentiates certain entities or platforms which are not subject to these new laws.
Section 6 creates a new section of law regarding commercial entities and prohibitions on retaining identity information beyond initial age verification purposes.
Initial School Law Thoughts:
- First, it’s important to know that concurrently there are legislative bills on student cell phone use as well which I’ve previously discussed on SB139 which is very similarly mirrored in HB1276. We can expect student cell phone use and social media use will be discussed concurrently a lot this legislative session.
- This gives the power and authority of social media use by kids to the parents and legal guardians.
- This would prevent minors from engaging in social media without parent knowledge absent some super-smart tech kids who will figure out work-arounds.
- Most Oklahoma public schools have been dealing with social media for quite a while and have adopted policies on the matter.
- Students who use social media do so quite a bit while at school. Many school districts have honed in on which online platforms it will allow a student to use on campus.
- School wifi systems can be limited to prohibit student use of social media while on the school’s wifi.
- I’m curious if a student ID would at all be used to attempt age verification although most school IDs only identify a grade of a student.
- Most school devices are secure enough to not allow the download of social media platforms.
- It is unclear what happens to social media accounts for minors who are under the age of 16 when this proposed law becomes effective other than the social media companies requiring age verification on and after July 1, 2025.
What happens next for this bill?
HB1275 was heard and passed the House Government Modernization and Technology committee last week. You can watch that committee discussion on the Oklahoma House of Representatives media webpage. It could next be heard by the House Commerce and Economic Development Oversight Committee, which has not posted its next agenda as of the date of this post.
