Youth Social Media Act Introduced

State Representative David Steffen (R-Green Bay) has introduced Assembly Bill 373, which would set requirements that social media companies must follow when it comes to accounts held by minors. 

This would include:

• Ensuring that all social media accounts created on or after January 1, 2019 are designated as youth accounts (unless the company determines that the account holder is not a minor) 

• Prohibiting direct messaging between a youth account and any other account that is not linked to the youth account through "friending" or another process where two people add each other as contacts

• Refraining from showing youth accounts in search results

• Preventing advertising from being shown to youth accounts 

• Refraining from using or collecting personal information from a youth account 

• Refraining from the use of targeted or suggested groups, accounts, users, services, posts and products

• Ensuring that youth accounts cannot be accessed between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. 

• Providing information to a parent or guardian of the youth account so they can access the account. Parents could opt their child out of the youth account designation.