The well-meaning but controversial bill was filed with the Utah state legislature on Jan 27. While it’s aimed at improving online safety for children, some believe it will erode children’s privacy and poses a cybersecurity risk. The new bill, SB152, proposes new requirements be mandated by law, such as verifying the age of Utah residents before they access online platforms with 10 million or more users. Under the proposed legislation, Utah residents must upload government-issued IDs to access social media platforms. Parents will have to give consent for users under 18 by uploading their ID, providing their child’s name and birth date, and their physical mailing address. The bill also requires social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to keep a database of users’ addresses, IDs, and other personal information.
Proposed User Database is a Cybersecurity Risk
Other provisions of the bill include limiting direct messaging, not displaying accounts in search results, and limiting “hours of access” to between 6:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. “I oppose these bills from my perch as a long-time child safety advocate,” American internet safety advocate and journalist Larry Magid wrote in an article published in The Mercury News on Thursday. Magid said another bill, House Bill 311, is somewhat similar to SB152. SB152 proposes internet companies log a “record of any submissions provided under the requirements,” meaning that all users, including minors, will have their data stored by these platforms. “Even though it’s legislation for a single state, it could set a dangerous precedent [for the rest of the U.S.] and make it harder to pass and enforce sensible federal legislation that truly would protect children and other users of connected technology,” Magid said. Keeping a database like that is a cybersecurity risk, which could lead to everything from financial to identity theft, he warned. Furthermore, if the bill passes, it would raise the age of parental consent from 13 to 18, bypassing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). “It could also ban adults who don’t have the required ID,” Magid added.
Bill Goes Against the Constitution and UN Convention
According to Magid, this legislation goes against the First Amendment and Article 13 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The First Amendment effectively states that the United States shall make no law that may prohibit freedom of speech. Article 13 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child has a similar section that says, “The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds.” If passed, the bill would represent a step toward the laws of authoritarian countries, such as China, where internet regulators routinely scan social media comments before they’re published. Users can be blocked from re-registering social media accounts or have their posts deleted if they break these rules. The requirement of parental permission for those under 18 could be a big issue, Magid said. Teens cannot get such permission if their parents are illiterate, worried, not interested, or don’t want minors to explore their religious, political, or sexual identities. SJSU Professor Ahmed Banafa, who spoke to ABC7 News on Friday, said the new bill is an attempt at censorship. “This bill is a censorship, that’s the only thing I can name it, on the kids ability to get access to it,” Banafa said, adding that, if passed, “it’s going to be in the hands of corporate America, social media, all the platforms, they own it.” According to the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), “These new data collection requirements are the opposite of data minimization, which is widely agreed upon as an industry standard goal.” Collecting and processing children’s data is a sensitive topic in the U.S. In September 2022, TikTok was sued for excessive data collection. Since 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been continually developing actions and policies to support children’s online privacy awareness and the enforcement of COPPA. For more information about just how invasive social media apps can be, check out our guide to the privacy risks of TikTok. We also recommend reading our guide to internet safety for kids to learn how to protect children online.
