Latest news with #Age-AppropriateOnlineDesignCodeAct
Engadget
3 days ago
- Politics
- Engadget
A new Nebraska law wants to make social media less addictive for kids
Nebraska is the latest state to crack down on how kids can use social media. The state's governor, Jim Pillen, recently signed into law a package of bills aimed at restricting certain social media features that keep kids hooked on the platform. The final bill signed, called the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, will require companies to offer time limits on usage, restrict certain categories of content and provide chronological feeds instead of algorithmic ones that promote infinite scrolling. The Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, also known as LB504, details that social media companies can only collect the minimum amount of personal data from younger users, and offers parents more tools to limit how their children use their accounts. Along with those restrictions, the law prohibits any ads related to gambling, alcohol, tobacco or drugs from reaching kids on social media. Alongside LB504, the signed package of bills includes LB140 that limits student use of smartphones in schools, LB383 that requires social media companies to verify the age of its users and require parental consent for creating accounts, and LB172 that creates criminal penalties for AI-generated pornography. "Collectively, all these bills have an incredible impact on helping our teachers and giving our schools the opportunity to teach our kids, instead of being disrupted in the classroom," Pillen said in a press release. "They also provide parents with the tools they need to protect our kids from big tech online companies and predators." The law is set to go into effect January 1, 2026, and any companies that violate these new regulations will face civil penalties. Nebraska is the latest state to restrict social media usage for minors, but Texas is also trying to pass a similar ban. With more efforts to regulate social media, NetChoice, an Internet advocacy organization whose members include Google, Meta and X, has voiced criticism of these states' efforts, arguing that they infringe on First Amendment rights and user privacy. In 2022, California signed a similar law meant to protect underage users, but it has since been in a legal battle following a lawsuit filed by NetChoice that claims a violation of free speech rights.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Social media protections, student phone ban advance again in Nebraska Legislature
State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln. April 8, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — State lawmakers are one debate away from adopting two bills backed by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen meant to increase online safety for minors and curb student phone use at school. Senators on Wednesday, by voice vote, advanced Legislative Bill 504, the 'Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act' by State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln. It would require online services to explicitly protect minor users and their personal information in the physical design of certain applications or websites, including social media. LB 504's goal is to tackle rising youth social media use and harms such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, harassment, stalking, suicide and more. Bosn, a former deputy county attorney in Lancaster and Saunders Counties and a mother of four young children, said the online services covered under her bill profit off of users' data, including from screen time, clicks or purchases. She added that families know the importance of bills such as LB 504 and how difficult it is to stay ahead of an 'ever-changing online world.' The bill is about public safety, Bosn explained, comparable to car seats, toddler beds, training wheels, helmets and high chairs. 'We think about safety features in every other product we provide to our most vulnerable,' Bosn said. 'So why wouldn't we make every effort to make kids online safer?' Under LB 504, 'qualified online services' are those that: Conduct business in Nebraska. Determine the purposes and means of processing users' personal information. Have annual gross revenue over $25 million, adjusted every other year for inflation, at least 50% of which is derived from the sale or sharing of personal user data. Buy, receive, sell or share the personal information of 50,000 or more consumers, households or devices each year. Online services with 'actual knowledge' that fewer than 2% of users are minors (up to age 18) would be excluded from the act, as would federal, state, tribal or local governments for design features 'in the ordinary course of its operations.' Should Bosn's proposal conflict with one or more other laws, 'the law that affords the greatest protection from harm to minors shall control.' State Sens. Terrell McKinney and Margo Juarez, both of Omaha, both spoke in favor of Bosn's bill and said it was important to have guardrails in place for children. Juarez, a former school board member for Omaha Public Schools, said she imagined she would have appreciated the guidance if she had dealt with such social media influences when her children were younger. Children and teens using these online services would need to be treated differently online than adults, requiring easy-to-use and accessible tools, such as for parents up to their child's 13th birthday, to crack down on: Screen time. A minor being able to communicate with other users. Other individuals being able to see a minor's personal data. The operation of all design features, including to opt-out of any 'unnecessary' features. Personalized recommendations, allowing an opt-in for a chronological info stream rather than one based on user activity. In-game purchases or other transactions, placing limits or prohibiting such activity. The sharing of the precise geolocation of the minor and providing obvious notice of such tracking. Targeted advertising of minor users would also be prohibited on qualified online services. So would notifications or push alerts from such online services between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. during the school year, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays during the school year. Bosn's proposal also prohibits 'dark patterns' from being used on minors. These are user interfaces 'designed or manipulated with the effect of substantially subverting or impairing user autonomy, decision-making or choice.' This could include features that influence user choices often without the awareness of what they are consenting to, such as tracking or targeted ads. State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln, as he did when the bill was first debated in February, said he had 'philosophical concerns' but also legal questions over whether LB 504's requirements would be constitutional under the First Amendment right of free speech. Dungan's largest concern was that the bill would require these settings to be default. He cited a recent case in California where a similar law was put on pause. 'I believe that in order to be compliant with the First Amendment, it is important that we not curate the speech that is being made by these private actors,' Dungan said. Bosn said requiring the default settings would add some 'teeth' to the law. State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha, noting he has four children almost the same age as Bosn's, said he appreciated the changes that Bosn made for the second-round debate as a 'step in the right direction.' Cavanaugh said that while he shared concerns about social media and taking action, he was concerned about 'injecting the government from a top-down approach.' 'I think there are concerns people raise [that] young people should be entitled to some level of their own privacy about their thoughts and things like that,' he said. 'I don't know where you draw that line.' Bosn said she made multiple changes after talking with opponents, but that while she tried multiple times to work with Dungan and Cavanaugh, they hadn't engaged. She criticized the duo, who are both attorneys, for saying they agreed with the premise but in effect saying, 'We're just not there yet.' She called that 'a little disingenuous.' 'Maybe you should sit this one out,' Bosn said. 'Either have the courage to come and say, 'These are the changes we want made,' … or don't bother.' Bosn said one senator who previously raised concerns, State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, worked on the bill before Bosn filed an amended version about one week ago. 'If you're not going to read it and you're not going to come and talk with me about your concerns, please don't stand here and patronize me and say, 'I really support your efforts,'' Bosn said. Bosn said she had removed a main provision of her bill similar to an issue raised in the California case, even though she said she disagreed with those concerns. That language would have required qualified online services to implement features to prevent compulsive usage, severe psychological harm (including anxiety and depression), severe emotional distress, 'highly offensive intrusions on reasonable privacy expectations,' identity theft, discrimination or other injuries. The amended bill would also no longer require online services to treat all users as a minor without until it is known that the user is not one. Online services would also not be required to issue an annual compliance report. Dungan said he had to 'respectfully dispute' that the Nebraska and California proposals were substantively different and apologized if his concerns had come off as patronizing. 'It still addresses the same underlying issue, which is that it seeks to regulate speech in a way that is overly broad,' Dungan said. Dungan said he thought the bill was a 'good idea, but, unfortunately, we do have to adhere to the rules of the Constitution.' An effort by Dungan to remove the 'default settings' language from Bosn's bill failed 26-10 against his amendment. Bosn's amendments to her bill were approved 45-0. LB 504 is one of four proposals backed by Pillen and Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers this spring that addresses online safety for minors. A second bill, advanced Tuesday by voice vote to a third and final round of debate, LB 140 by State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, would require each of the state's 245 public school districts to prohibit student use of personal electronic devices, such as cellphones, on school grounds or at a 'school instructional function,' like a field trip. Most school districts already have such policies, and districts would retain wide latitude in approving the places and times when such devices could be used. The other bills are LB 383, from State Sen. Tanya Storer of Whitman, and LB 172, from State Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering. Storer's 'Parental Rights in Social Media Act' advanced 6-1 from the Bosn-chaired Judiciary Committee, with LB 172 amended in. LB 383 would prohibit anyone from creating social media accounts without first verifying their age after Jan. 1. One method of age verification could be a digital ID card. Minors (up to age 18) could not create an account without clear parental consent. Hardin's LB 172 would update existing state laws against child sexual abuse material to outlaw computer-generated images of child pornography. Storer has designated LB 383 as her 2025 priority bill. It is scheduled to begin debate Wednesday. Bosn's LB 504 would take effect Jan. 1 if passed. Civil violations could be enforced by the Nebraska AG's Office, up to $50,000 for each violation. The bill would include funding for a new assistant attorney general, or about $150,000 each full fiscal year. Companies would have a six-month 'grace period' to comply with the act, or until July 1, 2026. Bosn said 'red flags' over youth online activity have been flying from educators, medical professionals, law enforcement, judges, parents, grandparents, guardians and children who she said were acknowledging problems and asking for help. Bipartisan groups of lawmakers nationwide have been doing just that, Bosn added. 'This is the time to stand up for our kids,' Bosn said. 'This bill is a common sense opportunity for this body to demonstrate the political will to protect Nebraska children online.' Nebraska Examiner senior reporter Cindy Gonzalez contributed to this report. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kids online safety measures can do more harm than good
Several states, including Nebraska, have proposed bills seeking to improve the safety of going online for young people. (Stock photo by) Protecting children from online harm is a goal we all share, and there is no question that more needs to be done to keep them safe. However, approaches like a current proposal in the Nebraska Legislature, the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, bring a host of significant privacy concerns and could further expand the size and role of government, placing the government between the rights of parents and their children. Changes like requiring age verification, as LB 504 does, threaten our most fundamental rights to free expression, risk exposing our data to cyber-attacks, and could lead to dangerous government censorship. Forcing platforms like ours to collect identifying personal information on every single user imposes undue barriers to users' exercise of constitutionally protected speech online. This isn't just inconvenient for users but is actively harmful to tech start-ups like ours as it suddenly forces us to maintain a massive database of sensitive information all in one place. That sort of database is ripe for theft by cybercriminals. Moreover, it holds enormous and potentially disastrous consequences for free expression online: overly broad duty of care provisions would require any online platforms hosting user-submitted content to know the ages of every single user or risk litigation. It is not hard to envision how this could pressure some platforms to remove or cease hosting user-submitted content to avoid liability exposure, casting a broad chilling effect on online speech and reducing the outlets users have for free expression online. Current kids' online safety proposals aren't just harmful. The government is expressly forbidden from making speech determinations under the First Amendment, for example, yet under these proposals would be determining what is and isn't child-appropriate, a job for parents, not government. Inserting government into that conversation threatens parental autonomy by depriving parents of the opportunity to choose what's best for children, overstepping current regulations. This new legislation would be burdensome to small businesses like ours. Moreover, there is no solid implementation framework in LB 504 to adequately address privacy concerns previously shared. These regulations would likely stifle Nebraska's growing Silicon Prairie, discouraging innovation and encouraging our best and brightest to leave for states with more reasonable rules. At a time when it's harder than ever to start a new business and brain drain continues to be one of our most pressing issues, we should be fostering an environment that creates technological advancements, particularly in artificial intelligence and digital security, that could improve online safety. The right approach to child safety online is to put parents at the heart of this process and empower them to make the best decisions for their children. Only through education and parental empowerment can we make meaningful strides without depriving kids of crucial opportunities to learn and grow through interaction with the broader world online. We should scale back heavy-handed regulations and promote a forward-thinking tech environment that positions Nebraska as a hub for innovation, free expression and the responsible development of emerging technologies. Andrew Prystai is co-founder of Event Vesta, an event discovery and promotion platform. All opinions expressed are solely his.
