LOS ANGELES—State lawmakers in many jurisdictions across the United States are now posturing toward social media bans and strict regulations on minors using them.
Two proposals in California and Missouri are noteworthy, as they reflect efforts in countries like Australia and the United Kingdom to completely restrict under-16s from social media use. Such developments add to the overarching regulatory discussions on age verification that have plagued First Amendment debates for years.
In California, a bipartisan team of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would prohibit the use of social media for users under the age of 16. Assembly Bill (AB) 1709 sets forth a "covered platform age restriction" for social media platforms with prohibitions on under-16s creating and maintaining accounts on such websites.
This proposal is modeled after the age ban adopted by the government of Australia, which banned social media use for the same target group of teenagers. The primary sponsor of AB 1709 is Democratic state Asm. Josh Lowenthal of Long Beach. In February, State Affairs reported that California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared to be in support of the legislation.
Lowenthal said in that report that, "I'm deeply grateful for Governor Newsom's willingness to speak out on this issue. ... He's someone who, above all else, leads as a dad. His family faces the same worries as mine, and the millions of other California families who are exhausted and heartbroken by the very real, harmful effects of social media on our children."
Earlier that month,
Politico received a policy position document from Gov. Newsom's spokesperson, Tara Gallegos, stating that the governor supports social media age bans.
The governor announced support for age bans after attending global summits with world leaders, like the World Economic Forum and the Munich Security Conference.
He discussed social media regulations and age bans with key international leaders, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain. Sánchez's government announced its intention to deploy an age ban on under-16s. He shared his government's position in an address at the World Governments Summit
held in Dubai earlier this year.
"We support balanced, evidence-based solutions that strengthen protections for young people, equip parents with meaningful tools, and ensure accountability across platforms," said Robert Boykin of the tech industry trade group TechNet in a
Los Angeles Times report on the Lowenthal bill.
He added, "Our companies have made significant investments in teen safety and parental controls, and we remain committed to building on that progress."
This doesn't mean that TechNet supports the legislation and potential restrictions on activity that is typically protected by the First Amendment. If the bill becomes law, it would enter force in 2027 and would be one of the largest restrictions on social media usage age in the world.
California has a population of nearly 40 million people, while 27.2 million people are subject to a national prohibition under Australia's federal government.
Critics of Australia's social media ban and its nationwide age verification measures indicate that the age-gating technology developed, commercialized and sold by the companies represented by the Age Verification Providers Association can misidentify the ages of people under 16.
The executives of large social media platforms remain consistently divided on a social media ban. For example, Pinterest's chief executive officer, Bill Ready, promoted a ban on social media for minors under a certain age in
a guest column for Time, utilizing Australia in his argument to advocate for those regulations.
"Critics call bans paternalistic or unworkable," Ready wrote. "Others point out that social media can offer connection and community. But today’s products too often pair those benefits with serious harm: unwanted outreach from strangers, constant comparison, body image pressure, bullying, and exposure to content even many adults struggle with."
Such sentiment is shared across the United States in state legislatures. Missouri is following the
same trend. Democratic state Rep. Marty Joe Murray of St. Louis introduced
House Bill (HB) 2392, which would ban people under the age of 14 in the state from creating social media accounts and would require "verified consent" from parents for 14 to 16-year-olds.
Another proposal in the Missouri legislature, from Republican state Rep. Don Mayhew of the town of Crocker, is similar to Murray's bill, aiming to
require parental consent for 16 and 17-year-olds and ban under-16s from holding social media accounts that are not attached to their parent or guardian.
Murray and Mayhew’s bills empower the attorney general to impose penalties of up to $50,000 per violation and allow parents or guardians of affected minors to pursue damages through civil lawsuits. The Missouri proposals come as legislation
advances in the state to codify pornography age verification in state statute.
Despite a
non-legislative regulatory intervention issued by former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in 2025 and further championed by his replacement, Catherine Hanaway, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state legislature want the requirement codified in state statute to make future repeal harder.
