The MA Senate Is Voting on a Bill to Regulate Teen Social Media Use. Here's How It Can Be Better.

rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/ma-senate-social-media-bill?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-ma-senate-social-media-bill' style='width: 100%'></div> Progressive Mass https://actionnetwork.org/groups/progressive-mass The MA Senate Is Voting on a Bill to Regulate Teen Social Media Use. Here's How It Can Be Better. https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg A couple months ago, the MA House advanced a harmful bill that would ban minors from social media, force social media platforms to enable parental surveillance of teenagers’ online activity, and subject everyone to privacy-invading online ID checks in order to access information or speak out online. We joined groups from across the state in opposing this language. The Senate's bill, which will be voted on this Thursday, takes a smarter approach, targeting addictive design. Our friends at Fight for the Future are urging senators to support several amendments that would protect privacy, protect youth, and help better accomplish the bill's stated goals  (read more about them here). Amendment #2, which closes a loophole in the definition of "user" that would have allowed platforms to continue providing addictive features to minors so long as the minor does not use an account to access the platform Amendment #3, which updates the definition of social media so that it would cover Snapchat and exclude sites like GitHub and Wikipedia that have valuable educational purposes Amendment #4, which clarifies that the attorney general will be regulating interoperability of age signals and not mandating that all operating systems implement age signals Amendment #19, which prevents companies from manipulating users into using addictive features Amendment #24, which voids the privacy and security issues that come with obtaining parental consent, while increasing the protections for minors Amendment #25, which clarifies that platforms can use interaction data to generate feeds when that data functions to allow users to control the amount and types of content they receive from users they subscribe to Amendment #27, which expands the ban on tech companies' ability to use design tactics, such as repeated nudges and grouping of settings controls, to manipulate users into choosing less protective settings Amendment #29, which adds important protections to minors’ data by requiring the attorney general to address issues of re-identification that could expose minors’ personal information to the public https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ma-senate-social-media-bill