New bills in Arkansas cover gaps left by permanent injunction on age assurance law

Arkansas’ age assurance legislation may be dead, but may reemerge in the form of newly introduced bills covering processing of children’s data, age verification for social media, and the use of algorithms that produce addictive feeds.

MLex reports that the three major bills – SB 611, HB 1717 and HB 1726 – have crossed chambers.

In early April, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks ruled in favor of NetChoice, the industry lobby group that represents the world’s most powerful tech firms, in issuing a permanent injunction of the state’s age assurance law, which the judge said “takes a hatchet to adults’ and minors’ protected speech.”

Of the new bills, SB 611, “to amend the Social Media Safety Act,” would restrict the use of addictive algorithms that encourage doomscrolling and the times of day at which notifications can be sent, and bans targeted advertising to minors. It comes with a companion bill, SB 612, which would establish a private right of action against social media platforms that cause harm and impose civil penalties on firms that “knowingly and willfully contributes to a minor’s suicide or suicide attempt.” That bill has already passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee

HB 1717 centers on the protection of children’s privacy and data, based on the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It would ban the collection of data from children and teens for the purposes of targeted advertising, and require clear notice and consent for data-processing activities.

HB 1726 would create the Arkansas Kids Online Safety Act, establishing a duty of care for tech platforms to design their products to prevent heightened risks of harm to minors.

California law would impose $1M fine for proven negligence

Kids’ data safety bills are also advancing in California and Oregon. MLex says lawmakers in both states have advanced bills aimed at guarding location data and protecting children from harmful social media content.

Representative Julie Fahey, a chief sponsor of Oregon’s HB 2008, says “the right to privacy isn’t just about securing our digital accounts, it’s about protecting our freedom to move through the world without fear that our whereabouts are being recorded, packaged and sold.”

In California, AB 2 passed out of the Judiciary Committee and is headed next to the Appropriations Committee. The bill would impose penalties of up to US$1 million on large social media companies ruled to be negligent in protecting children. Diane Papin, a Democrat from Silicon Valley, says proof is crucial: “the tech industry has long been about don’t regulate our content,” she says. “Fair enough. I get it. But if the case has been proven … then we’re gonna accept the penalties.”

Familiar First Amendment arguments have been made against the bill, but the committee concluded it doesn’t think “the founding fathers were very worried about a 16-year-old being able to use social media.”

AB 2 extends beyond content moderation to include moderating the amount of time that kids are online, usage at various times of day, and the issue of addiction. And, says Josh Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, “how about the issue of age verification? How about ID verification? There are so many different ways that harm is being caused outside of content itself.”

Article Topics

age verification  |  Arkansas  |  California  |  children  |  COPPA  |  data privacy  |  legislation  |  Oregon  |  social media