Assembly Committee OK’s Sen. Skinner’s Bill to Hold Social Media Companies Accountable for Harming Children

The Assembly Judiciary Committee today approved Sen. Nancy Skinner’s SB 680, which would hold social media platforms accountable for using algorithms that result in harm to children.

SB 680 would bar social media companies from employing algorithms, designs, and features that addict child users to their products and target young people with dangerous material that can lead to suicide or cause eating disorders or other harm, including a youth’s purchase of dangerous controlled substances or illegal guns.

“Californians are fed up with social media platforms harming our children,” said Sen. Skinner, D-Berkeley. “Features in these platforms are designed to addict users, with our children particularly susceptible. Further, those design features also target our children with information that can cause eating disorders and other harm, as well as how to buy dangerous narcotics and illegal firearms. SB 680 will provide California’s Attorney General’s Office, along with other public prosecutors, the legal tools needed to help protect our children and hold social media accountable.”

In addition, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced today that he is sponsoring SB 680. Under the legislation, Bonta and the Attorney General’s Office, along with district attorneys and other public prosecutors, would have the authority to take social media platforms to court for repeatedly failing to prevent their algorithms from harming kids.

“Every day, children in California face real and immediate harms on social media platforms,” said Attorney General Bonta. “It’s great news that Senator Skinner’s bill has been approved by the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Large social media companies are harming our children's well-being and mental health, and SB 680 is an important tool in our collective efforts to hold those companies accountable.”

The Judiciary Committee approved SB 680 today on a bipartisan vote of 8-0. The bill now goes to the Assembly’s Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee. In a recent procedural move, Sen. Skinner replaced her previous social media legislation, SB 287, with SB 680. The new legislation adheres to the tenets of the previous bill to protect California’s youth from dangerous social media practices that result in harm to children.

SB 680 is also backed by a coalition of advocacy, education and law enforcement organizations dedicated to protecting youth, including the California District Attorneys Association, California Federation of Teachers, Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law, and Common Sense Media.

In recent years, there has been a disturbing increase of reports of youth dying after unwittingly taking fentanyl that was sold to them by people who secretly entered the youths’ conversations on Snapchat or other platforms. Similarly, arms dealers are increasingly using social media to sell ghost guns — illegal guns that can’t be traced by law enforcement and are now a major driver of gun violence. Likewise, so-called choking challenges or blackout challenges on TikTok have taken the lives of numerous children under the age of 12 around the globe. 

Social media algorithms, designs, and features deepen these dangerous online trends by addicting users and feeding them content that reinforces their preferences or curiosities. Users, in turn, can be led down dark paths on the web. That’s especially perilous for children, considering that the average teen spends more than eight hours a day on digital platforms.

Under SB 680, social media companies operating in California would be barred from using algorithms, designs, or features that target child users younger than 16 with information that causes them to:

• Develop an eating disorder
• Become addicted to the social media platform
• Inflict harm on themselves or others, including physical, mental, or emotional harm.

Such harm includes targeting children with:

• Information on how to die by suicide, and then the child acts on this information or becomes suicidal
• Information on how to obtain a controlled substance, such as fentanyl, and then the child obtains or uses the controlled substance
• Information on how to obtain an illegal firearm, including a ghost gun, and then the child obtains or uses the firearm.

A social media platform that knowingly and willfully violates SB 680 would be subject to:

• A fine of up to $250,000 per violation
• A court injunction to halt the violations
• Attorneys’ fees and court costs.

Social media platforms would be able to achieve compliance with SB 680 by:

• Conducting quarterly audits to ensure no violations of SB 680
• Making immediate corrections when their designs, algorithms, or features cause violations of SB 680.

Sen. Nancy Skinner represents the 9th Senate District and is chair of the Senate Budget Committee and the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.