Enlarge / Utah high school student Hannah Zoulek sued Utah to block the Social Media Regulation Act from taking effect March 1. (credit: thefire.org)
A Utah high school student, Hannah Zoulek, has joined a lawsuit, fighting to block Utah's vague social media law from taking effect on March 1.
The Social Media Regulation Act requires platforms to verify user ages and then obtain parental consent for minors under 18 to maintain accounts. Once granted access to platforms, minors must be blocked from search results, and no ads can be displayed on their account. Platforms granting access will accept liability for designing any features that the state considers to be addicting or harmful to minors. The law also imposes a curfew blocking minors from accessing platforms between 10:30 pm and 6:30 am.
Because the law "fails to define what constitutes 'physical, mental, emotional, developmental, or material harms,' or what degree of harm gives rise to liability," platforms are left to "guess as to what behavior crosses the line," the complaint said. A platform may be ruled to be causing harm if a teenager gets a headache after scrolling for too long or becomes upset after friends don't like a selfie, the complaint said, "nobody knows."