The Utah Senate approved an app store age-verification bill Monday. State senators voted 24-1 to send SB-142 to the House; Sen. Heidi Balderree (R) voted no.
It’s up to social media companies, which make “trillions of dollars” a year, to determine how to effectively verify users’ ages and parental consent for minors, said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) on Monday. Tong urged legislators to pass a kids’ social media bill (HB-6857) at a livestreamed Connecticut General Law Committee hearing. Tech industry groups condemned the proposal in statements.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should direct a lower court to enjoin California’s 2024 law (SB-976) restricting social media feeds for minors, consumer privacy advocates and free-market groups said in amicus briefs filed Thursday (case 25-146). As it urged the appeals court to reverse the U.S. District Court for Northern California, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) raised privacy concerns about requiring companies to conduct age verification.
Illinois legislators introduced a slew of privacy measures last week, including a comprehensive bill, Delete Act proposal and multiple updates to the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
The European Data Protection Board will discuss DeepSeek at its Feb. 11 plenary. Several Data Protection Authorities are investigating the AI chatbot (see 2502030001). The board could also approve a statement on age assurance.
Maryland, one of many states across the country introducing age-verification bills aimed at protecting children online, heard testimony Wednesday in support of HB-394. The bill would make websites liable for distributing obscene content to kids younger than 18, while setting data retention rules for identifying information collected for age verification (see 2501170053).
A privacy expert who worked on Maryland's age-appropriate design code (AADC) said she hopes it can better withstand legal challenges than the California version of the law.
Judges for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared split during oral argument Tuesday in NetChoice v Fitch, which deals with a Mississippi kids online safety law. NetChoice sued Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R) last year over HB-1126, alleging that it violates the First Amendment and that its age-verification requirement poses privacy problems (see 2501310041).
Oklahoma Rep. Josh West (R) said he won't bring his comprehensive privacy bill to the floor this year, despite the House Government Modernization and Technology Subcommittee clearing it at a Wednesday meeting. The panel also cleared an age-verification bill.
The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would restrict children’s social media use and targeted ads, despite concerns about data privacy and free speech (see 2502040047).