Relating to parental authorization for minors to create accounts on social media platforms, providing civil penalties, and including applicability provisions

This bill relates to parental authorization for minors to create accounts on social media platforms. The bill requires a social media company (company) to obtain parental authorization before permitting a minor to create an account on the company’s platform, and, upon request, to allow a parent or guardian to revoke or rescind the grant of parental authorization at any time. “Social media company”, “parental authorization”, “minor”, and “social media platform” are defined in the bill. The bill prohibits the collection, transfer, transmission, imaging, or retention of data related to a minor by a company if the company has not received parental authorization, and prohibits a company from allowing a minor to create or use an account on the social media platform if the minor is prohibited from doing so by any other provision of state or federal law. The bill requires a company to provide a parent or guardian who has granted parental authorization with a password or other means to access the account of the minor to allow the parent or guardian to view all posts created by the minor, view all messages and responses sent or received by the minor, control the privacy and account settings of the minor’s account, and monitor and limit the amount of time the minor may spend using the social media platform. The bill permits the attorney general to bring a civil action for a violation of the bill and the court to assess a civil penalty against a company of up to $1,000 per violation. A person harmed by a company’s violation of the bill may bring a civil action in district court and, upon a finding that a company violated the bill, a district court may order damages in an amount equal to the greater of either $10,000 for each violation, or the amount of actual damages for any financial, physical, and emotional harm to the person if the court determines that the company’s violation was the direct cause of the harm. The court may also order punitive damages, reasonable attorney fees, and court costs. The attorney general shall adopt rules to administer the bill, including but not limited to rules to establish the processes or means by which a company can comply with the parental authorization requirements, acceptable forms or methods of parental authorization, and the processes to confirm that a company has received parental authorization for each minor that has created an account on the platform. The bill applies to a company operating in the state on or after the effective date of the bill.