Utah lawmakers are fast-tracking two bills that would require social media companies to verify users' age, give parents access to their kids' accounts, and more
and would like to get the government involved in the process. What was that about GOP and small government again? Or does that not apply in the theocracy state? https://twitter.com/... Gustavo Turner / @gustavoturnerx : Utah Republicans continue introducing bizarre censorship bills under the guise of “age verification” and “ZOMG thE chILdRensSSs.” This week's nonsense: platforms need to surrender minors' passwords to their parents or guardians. And NO INTERNET AFTER 6:30 p.m. No, really: https://twitter.com/... Brailey / @braileysanchez : it's 8pm on a friday so i am not doing a detailed analysis but one of the big changes that stuck out to me was that “acceptable forms of identification” (ex: ID) was removed and establishing “acceptable forms or methods of identification” would be worked out in later rulemaking Brailey / @braileysanchez : Substitute bill for Utah HB 311 (Social Media Regulation) passed out of committee with a favorable recommendation: https://le.utah.gov/... Lots of public comment was on the privacy concerns, and the bill sponsor says he will continue to work on the data privacy concerns raised. @jess_miers : Both bills (HB 311 and SB 152) currently have a strong likelihood of passing. This is not a drill. @jess_miers : Because state-by-state implementation is technologically infeasible, you should expect it will affect all users, of any age, from any location. https://le.utah.gov/... @senatorshoshana : I also think the regulatory burdens are dwarfed compared to extremely real security risks. I haven't seen any “age verification” bill that instills confidence in me, and it's just because it's REALLY not a simple task @senatorshoshana : I won't get into penalties but they're a lot, which is standard for bills like these. I'm also not going to get into the regulatory burdens so much here... I always have thoughts there too, but I think you can guess. Mike McKell / @mikemckellutah : Looking forward to this bill. Long overdue. https://twitter.com/... @utahsenate : S.B. 152 sponsored by Sen. @mikemckellutah was released today and focuses on regulating social media companies. This bill gives parents more control to protect children and teens from the harms of social media. Learn more about his bill in the video below.⬇️ #utpol #utleg https://twitter.com/... @senatorshoshana : Also a lot of double speak in the bill - platforms can't collect kids' data (to use for the platform) EXCEPT their home addresses and other sensitive data (can only be used for user verification and also must be stored... security risk galore) @senatorshoshana : From the bill: “social media company shall prohibit a Utah minor account holder from having access to the Utah minor account holder's account during the hours of 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m” — a lot of thoughts here about this not accomplishing what they think it will @senatorshoshana : @mmasnick @techdirt [These are the bills I threaded earlier - will make it so your kids give their names and parents' addresses to Facebook Google and .... TikTok which those companies MUST NOT DELETE under the law] https://twitter.com/... @senatorshoshana : This has extreme privacy implications for parents but especially children. This also gets to a larger issue with user/child age/location verification. It's REALLY not a simple task. This is a really great post by @mmasnick explaining https://www.techdirt.com/... @techdirt @senatorshoshana : @mmasnick @techdirt “Age Verification Providers Say Don't Worry About California Design Code; You'll Just Have To Scan Your Face For Every Website You Visit” https://twitter.com/... @senatorshoshana : To start: I'm just not a fan of bills going after social media that de facto regulate the country. Internet bills in the states have a country-wide and possibly global effect. I don't think it's wise. I can see other arguments here but it's where I stand. @senatorshoshana : @mmasnick @techdirt The depth of the issues here are no joke and can have extreme consequences for kids' privacy. Worse yet, the Utah bill “requires companies to store that information” re @Libertas this is not great!!!!!! https://twitter.com/... @senatorshoshana : And the state of both govt & private sector privacy... isn't great!!! Data breaches happen all the time. Now kids' and parents' addresses will be in that data all over. FWIW bill limits reqs to social media companies w “at least 10,000,000 account holders” https://le.utah.gov/... @senatorshoshana : Next: As @Libertas notes... “First, the bill requires social media companies to identify Utah children on the platform by collecting and storing each child's birthdate and their parent's address.” UHHHHHHHHH @senatorshoshana : “Of course, there are new entrants in the age verification market who say it's no big deal, you'll just have to have your face scanned (for a few seconds, so they can get a “proof of liveness") for every website you visit. How very dystopian." @senatorshoshana : Okay. So I need to get to bed but I also have important thoughts on this Utah bill about kids online. https://libertas.org/... To start, I have a LOT of substantive problems with it but I genuinely think the sponsor and supporters are trying to do the right thing. @senatorshoshana : And @mmasnick has a new piece on the manifest problems with this and other Utah bills https://www.techdirt.com/... @techdirt Both bills require age verification “As we've discussed, the biggest age verification tool around happens to be the one owned by the company behind Pornhub.” https://twitter.com/... @senatorshoshana : Strongly encourage you to read @mmasnick https://www.techdirt.com/... John FitzGerald / @thetweetofjohn : As we've discussed, the biggest age verification tool around happens to be the one owned by the company behind Pornhub. In other words, Utah politicians may be requiring every Utah resident to be giving their private data over to a porn company. Nice one! https://www.techdirt.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Utah's fast-tracked pair of bills — HB 311 out of committee with a favorable recommendation and SB 152 alongside it — would make the state the first to mandate social media age verification, parental password access, and an overnight curfew for minors. The requirements fall only on platforms with at least 10 million accounts, so Facebook and Google-scale companies bear the compliance load while smaller services escape it.
The move kicked off a pattern rather than staying local: Utah's governor later signed an extension of the same logic to Apple's and Google's app stores, while in Washington the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced KOSA and COPPA 2.0, which critics flagged for forcing companies to collect more user data. Utah is the test case for whether state-level mandates can outrun federal action.
First-order effects
- Covered platforms must collect and store each Utah minor's birthdate and their parent's address for verification, hand minors' passwords to parents or guardians, and block account access between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.
- Sponsors signal strong likelihood of passage, so large social media companies face immediate engineering and legal work to build Utah-specific enforcement or restrict service in the state.
Second-order effects
- Age-gating minors reliably requires verifying everyone, dragging adult users into the same data-collection regime — the dynamic national coverage warns could 'entangle every adult internet user' as more states copy the bills.
- Apple and Google become the next enforcement layer once verification duties migrate from social platforms to the app stores themselves, shifting compliance cost upstream to distribution.
Third-order effects
- If the Utah template holds, child-safety law converges on mandatory identity infrastructure: platforms storing government-verifiable birthdates and guardian addresses by default, reversing the industry's data-minimization posture and creating a new breach target.
- Bipartisan momentum — KOSA cleared committee and later passed the Senate 91–3 — suggests state experiments like HB 311 function as proof-of-concept for a federal baseline rather than remaining outliers.
The trend: US online-safety regulation is shifting from platform self-policing to state-mandated age verification and parental controls, with Utah writing the template that Congress and other states are now following.