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SALT LAKE CITY — Social media companies currently have until March 1, 2024, to enact new age verification policies per Utah's Social Media Regulation Act, which gives lawmakers time to tweak the law during the upcoming legislative session which begins in January.
There's a good possibility that will happen, according to Gov. Spencer Cox, who was asked during his monthly news conference Thursday about a recently proposed rule that lays out acceptable means for platforms to verify the ages of users.
"There will probably be some tweaks during the legislative session, and the feedback is important," he said of the law, which prohibits social media companies from allowing minors to create accounts without parental consent.
It also requires that companies give parents and guardians access to their child's account, requires parental controls such as limiting when teens can access sites and prohibits companies from collecting data from or targeting advertising toward minors.
"There is no other industry in the world where we allow companies to contract with minors to harvest their data ... and yet, for some reason, we've allowed this to happen," Cox said. "I don't know why we've thought it's OK with social media."
Under the proposed rule, companies have several options for verifying the ages of users in Utah, including by matching information from a government-issued ID, verifying cellphone subscriber information or using facial analysis software to estimate age.
It also stipulates that companies must delete all information used to verify users' age, to prevent personally identifying information from leaking out.
Utah files lawsuit against TikTok, alleging harm to teen users
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Attorney General Sean Reyes on Tuesday announced a lawsuit against TikTok, claiming the social media platforms harms youth.The governor said he's "not comfortable" with every user having to provide a copy of their government-issued ID or the last four digits of their Social Security number to social media companies, which is why there are several options social media companies can choose from to complete the verification process.
When asked about the potential that every company opts to use the government ID option, he acknowledged that it's a possibility, but said it's an issue that would likely be corrected by the market.
"Well, they could, and then they would likely lose customers because I wouldn't sign up for those if they're going to do that," he said. "Again, they're free to certainly make those choices and then the market would come in."
"This isn't hard," he continued. "We're trying to make it complicated, I know, playing devil's advocate, that's what we do and it's fun, but this is some of the least controversial stuff that we've ever worked on. ... It's not going to be foolproof, of course ... but overall, it will absolutely make a difference."
Cox has made regulating social media to prevent alleged harm to young users a key policy focus this year. The state filed a lawsuit against TikTok last week, and the governor has repeatedly promised that more litigation is likely to follow.
