Attorney General Bonta: Landmark Legislation to Protect Youth Online Passes the Senate

SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Bonta issued the following statement after Senate Bill 976 (SB 976) Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act passed the Senate. SB 976, sponsored by Attorney General Bonta and authored by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), would limit the harms associated with social media addiction. This marks an important continuation of Attorney General Bonta’s commitment to improving child safety online.

“SB 976 puts control back in the hands of parents and children. Our children and teens are experiencing a public health crisis, caused by social media companies in their thirst for profits,” said Attorney General Bonta. “In California, we take mental health seriously, we take children’s online safety seriously — and we know that we don’t have a minute to waste to protect our kids. In California, we move fast and fix things.”

SB 976, co-sponsored by Public Health Advocates and the Association of California School Administrators, takes steps to protect young users from online addiction. First, SB 976 would give parents the choice of whether users under the age of 18 would receive a chronological feed from users they already follow or the current default on addictive social media platforms, an algorithmic feed. Algorithmic feeds fuel harmful and addictive use of the platforms and heavy social media use can cause mental health harms to young users. Second, the bill would prohibit social media platforms from sending notifications between 12:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. to users under age 18, unless a parent or guardian has provided consent. Third, SB 976 expands parental controls by requiring social media platforms to provide parents the ability to establish certain protections that will be turned on by default, including the ability to halt social media notifications and to block access to platforms for minors during nighttime hours and during the school day.