Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signs two bills regulating social media apps, including requiring age verification for all users and permission from parents for minors
Gov. Spencer Cox, who signed the bills on Thursday, said the state is prepared for a legal fight over the tech company regulations.
Salt Lake TribuneBryan Schott
Context & Ripple Effects
Utah’s action follows lawmakers’ earlier push to make social platforms verify ages and expand parental control over minors’ accounts. It turns that proposal into a direct compliance and constitutional test for platforms, amid already stated concerns about enforcement and civil liberties.
The issue did not stay confined to social networks: Utah later advanced an app-store age-verification model, and the state ultimately signed requirements aimed at Apple and Google’s stores. That progression matters because it shifts attention from individual apps to the distribution layer.
First-order effects
Social-media services operating in Utah face requirements to verify every user’s age and obtain parental permission for minors, forcing changes to onboarding and account-access processes.
Utah and the regulated companies enter an expected legal contest; Cox has said the state is prepared to defend the measures.
Second-order effects
Age verification creates new compliance, privacy, and user-friction tradeoffs for social platforms, while parents become an explicit approval point for minors’ access.
The law strengthens the case for moving verification upstream: Utah’s later app-store verification requirement places comparable age and consent duties on mobile-store operators rather than only on individual apps.
Third-order effects
If this approach survives legal review, youth-safety policy could increasingly treat age assurance as a platform-access requirement rather than a feature managed separately by each service.
The later federal court block of Utah’s social-media act shows the limiting force in this trend: constitutional scrutiny may determine whether state-by-state access controls can become durable policy.
The trend: This is part of a broader shift toward regulating digital access through age assurance and parental authorization, with the enforcement point moving from social apps toward app stores.
We're no longer willing to let social media companies continue to harm the mental health of our youth. Today we signed two key bills in our fight against social media companies into law: ➡️ SB152 requires social media companies to verify that users in https://socialmedia.utah.gov…
Gov. Spencer Cox signed a pair of bills on Thursday that will regulate when and how minors in Utah can use of social media and aims to stop those companies from designing addicting features. https://www.sltrib.com/...
Oh, Lord, @joenbc & @morningmika are praising the horrid Utah social-media law. Think teens were depressed before, now take away access to their friends and surveil them at all hours. Yeesh. #MoralPanic https://www.nbcnews.com/...
This feels big - @natashanyt reports that Utah will ban social media platforms from letting people under 18 have accounts, or use them at certain hours, without parental permission. The goal: address the “mental health crisis” among young people. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Utah decides to protect children in the state where firearms are their #1 cause of death by 1. Requiring age verification of all Utah users to sign up for a social app. Minors need parental permission. 2. Banning apps whose UI is addictive Guns? Still Ok https://www.sltrib.com/..…
Lawmakers say the restrictions will protect children from the harm social media does to their mental health. That concern for their well-being apparently does not extend to firearms, which are the leading cause of death for children #utpol #utleg https://www.sltrib.com/...
Now for Utah residents, social media companies must also: *verify the age of all account holders *allow parental access to minor posts/messages *impose a digital curfew by default between 1030PM and 630AM https://www.nbcnews.com/...
“It will require social media services to block Utah minors from accessing their accounts from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., a default setting that only a parent or guardian will be able to modify.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Utah becomes the first state to pass regulations restricting how minors use social media platforms. The legislation will likely bring a legal challenge over privacy and constitutional concerns #utpol #utleg https://www.sltrib.com/...
Utah is the first state in the U.S. to begin restricting how minors can use social media apps. Gov. Spencer Cox has signed laws to regulate when & how minors can use of social media and aims to stop those companies from designing addicting features.https://www.sltrib.com/ ...
Kudos to @GovCox along with @JordanTeuscher and Sen. Kirk Cullimore for taking a bold step in supporting families in their mission to protect children from the perils of social media apps. Big Tech and the Chinese Communist Party don't https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ ...... https:…
How is it going to be enforced? Kids are way ahead of their parents! Telling them no will only make them try harder for a work around. State-sanctioned government overreach. Where are the smart parents who know how to talk with their kids about this? https://www.nbcnews.com/...