Over the past year, state legislatures passed a series of online safety measures for children, amid concerns about a mental health crisis among the nation’s young people. A new law of Utah would require social networks to obtain parental consent before giving an account to a child under the age of 18 a new California law Many websites would need to enable the highest privacy settings for minors.
Now, Louisiana lawmakers have passed an even broader law that could limit underage access to much of the Internet in the state.
The Louisiana Measure would ban online services — including social networking sites, multiplayer games and video-sharing apps — from allowing anyone under the age of 18 to register accounts without parental consent. It would also allow Louisiana parents to cancel the terms of service their children have signed for existing accounts on popular services like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Fortnite and Roblox.
The Louisiana Civil Code Parents can already withdraw from contracts signed by minors who are not under legal guardianship. Laurie Schlegel, the Republican state legislature who pushed the new measure, said her bill simply makes it clear that the state’s existing contract rules also covered accounts on online content-sharing platforms.
“This is already the law in Louisiana,” Ms. Schlegel said in an email, noting that young people are unable to understand and agree to the numerous contract terms that online services often require to open a business accounts require. “We’re just making it clear to some irresponsible online companies that they’re contracting with minors without parental consent.”
On Tuesday, the Louisiana State House passed the bill by a vote of 97 to 0. The state Senate had already passed the measure. The bill now requires approval from Governor John Bel Edwards, who has yet to comment publicly. If he signs the bill, it will go into effect on August 1 next year.
The state bill comes two weeks after the Surgeon General’s release a public warning The Americans stressed that social media posed a serious risk to young people’s mental health and urged policymakers to limit access for children. This is welcomed by many parents who fear their children will be inundated with inappropriate content or spend unhealthy amounts of time online.
TechNet, an industry group whose members include Meta, Snap, Google, Amazon, Apple and Uber, rejected the bill, saying it was too broad and could create tension for all users, including adults.
“The draft law stipulates that all users must prove their age to comply with the law, and that parents must provide proof that they are the parent of the minor in order to access the platform,” says Servando Esparza, CEO of TechNet for Texas and the Southeast, said an emailed statement. “Doing so could compromise privacy and lead to unintended consequences,” he added, noting that Louisiana lawmakers recently amended the bill to require research into its potential impact before the measure would go into effect.
Louisiana’s online contracts bill is part of a new wave of state legislation this year that regulates internet services that could pose risks to young people. And it underscores the increasing effort by Republican lawmakers to give families more control over their children’s online activities.
Last year, Ms. Schlegel spearheaded passage of a Louisiana law that would require sexually explicit websites to verify that users in the state are 18 years of age or older by verifying credentials, such as a verified digital driver’s license. The law went into effect in January.
Since then, at least five states — Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, Utah, and Virginia — have passed similar age verification laws for pornography sites.
In March, Republican lawmakers in Utah began passing restrictive legislation Social Media Bill This would require social networks to verify a user’s age and obtain parental consent to allow minors to have accounts. The law would also give parents access to their children’s online posts and messages. Arkansas enacted a similar measure in April.
In May, the Free Speech Coalition, a group representing adult entertainment websites, published sued Utah To attempt to block the pornography age verification law on the grounds of freedom of expression, on the grounds that it violates Americans’ right to see constitutionally protected information.
Civil rights groups have raised similar concerns about broader child online safety bills, saying the measures could prevent young people from viewing online information.
The new Louisiana bill doesn’t specifically require social media, multiplayer games, and other websites and apps to verify the age of users in the state. And there are no specific penalties for companies that do not comply.
Still, it may mean that some online services that currently require new users to provide their date of birth will have to implement stricter age verification and parental consent procedures.
Like Ms. Schlegel’s pornography bill, the new draft online contract could be widely copied. Many other states have similar rules for contracts with minors in the civil codes.
“It’s time for big tech companies to be more responsible to our children online,” Ms. Schlegel wrote. “The damage is real.”
