The California Legislature on Monday passed a bill that would allow parents to sue social media for making children addicted to the platforms. Media such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok could be ordered to pay damages of up to US$ 25 thousand (R$ 120 thousand).
The text defines as “addiction” the difficulties in interrupting or reducing the time of use of the networks and physical, mental, emotional, material damages or to the development of users under 18 years of age.
Before becoming law, however, the proposal still needs approval from the California Senate and, later, the endorsement of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
Business groups linked to social networks have already come forward by saying that, if passed, the law will possibly make platforms stop accepting users under 18 and implement new age verification tools.
“There is no social media company or any business that could tolerate this legal risk,” reads a statement from TechNet, a group of industry executives, sent to California lawmakers.
The bill was unanimously approved by the State House. “The era of unrestrained social experimentation on children is over,” said Republican Representative Jordan Cunningham, one of the bill’s authors.
The new rules can be applied to companies with annual revenues of more than US$ 100 million – which indicates that the so-called Big Tech are the main target of the project. But even if the proposal becomes law, companies will have at least two legal paths to escape fines.
If the law goes into effect on January 1, 2023, platforms will have until April to remove features that are deemed addictive. Those that prove regular audits that seek to identify and remove these resources will also be immune from legal proceedings.
The text of the legislation does not explain which features it refers to, but restrictions may include, for example, the automatic playback of videos, the volume of notifications sent by apps and the “endless” design of the platforms, which make the user keep scrolling indefinitely.
“The question for me is who will pay the social cost [do vício das crianças em redes sociais]. Should it be funded by schools, parents and children, or should it be funded in part by the companies that profited from creating these products?” Cunningham asked in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
The Republican compares his bill to existing rules for making toys. His reasoning is that if a teddy bear has production standards that veto, for example, the presence of toxic components, an analogous measure must be taken in relation to social networks.
The project cites reports from the American press about the case that became known as the Facebook Papers. On the occasion, the former engineer of the company Frances Haugen released a series of internal reports pointing out several problems in the way the platform operates.
In testimony to Congress, Haugen said, among other allegations, that a user who searches for healthy recipes on Facebook could be led by the platform’s algorithm to content that promotes eating disorders such as anorexia.
Among the leaked documents are also reports indicating that Facebook (later renamed Meta) was aware that Instagram is potentially harmful to the mental health of teenagers, especially girls. An internal presentation brought data that related the use of the platform to the incidence of self-image disorders and suicidal thoughts.
Shortly after the leak, Facebook suspended the launch of Instagram Kids, a version of the platform for children under 13 — but denied that the decision was linked to the allegations.
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