Here's how Utah lawmakers addressed online safety this session

SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns are celebrating the passage of a bill requiring that application stores verify the ages of users, one of several bills state lawmakers hope will protect children online.

Among those is Brandy Vega, whose daughter attempted suicide at age 12 and then again at 14. The second attempt occurred in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and though Vega said there "was a lot going on" in the world at the time, she believes social media played a crucial role in the deteriorating mental health of her daughter.

"When we got access to digital information off of cellphones, we found through social media, a lot of sites and conversations and things that we felt played a big role in her mental stability at the time," Vega — who has since founded Promise 2 Live, a suicide prevention nonprofit — told KSL.com. "That was just really hard, and after that happened we saw the dangers of it. We took away the cellphone, and then we saw an increase in things."

Vega and her daughter are not alone. Poor mental health and "suicide-related behaviors" are on the rise, according to a 2024 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. surgeon general also issued an advisory in 2023, saying there are "ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents."

In light of emerging research, Utah lawmakers have already passed laws seeking to require that users verify their ages in order to use social media and restrict platforms' use of features — such as algorithms and endlessly scrolling feeds — thought to contribute to mental health declines.

Lawmakers advanced those bills last year following the emotional testimony of a Utah couple whose teenage son died by suicide in 2022 after he descended into what they described as a rabbit hole of content glorifying self-harm.

With those laws challenged in courts, state Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, advanced SB142 during the recent legislative session that would require app stores to verify the ages of users and restrict underage Utahns from being able to download certain apps or enter into contracts without parental consent.

The approach is considered to be more likely to survive court challenges from those who say the earlier social media laws could violate First Amendment rights, and could also protect children from other apps with potentially harmful content.

Vega applauded the bill's passage, saying it represents a "step in the right direction" toward protecting kids online.

"It stops ... just anybody being able to do anything (online)," she said. "I know kids that got on that were 10 or 12 years old, and at least if we can verify some of this information, or if we can have some accountability ... (we're) making it a little bit more tricky to get in there and have that impact over our kids."

The majority of Utahns also appear to be in favor of Weiler's App Store Accountability Act — which will begin to take effect in May if approved by Gov. Spencer Cox — according to polling from the Salt Lake City-based Sutherland Institute. The conservative think tank conducted a poll with Y2 Analytics in late January and early February on the pending legislation and found nearly three-quarters of respondents supported the proposal, while only 17% were opposed.

Like other laws passed by Utah, the bill would allow parents to sue on behalf of their children for alleged harm against app stores who fail to align with the law, which Bill Duncan — a constitutional law and religious freedom fellow with the institute — said protects children while not creating heavy-handed regulations at the state level.

"It kind of has the effect of avoiding an intricate enforcement mechanism the state is in charge of while at the same time creating, I think, mostly widely accepted requirements for the companies," he told KSL.com last month before the bill passed.

Large social media companies have lobbied for similar legislation at the federal level and celebrated the passage of the App Store Accountability Act last week.

Support for SB142 was strong across both gender and age, although it increased markedly among older groups of Utahns. About two-thirds of those aged 18-34 supported the bill, while the support from those over the age of 65 rose to nearly 90%.

A large majority of conservative respondents supported the bill, though only about half of those who identified as "nonconservative, non-Trump" voters felt the same way. That's likely because they are naturally opposed to the GOP-dominated Legislature and may have viewed the bills as coming from a "moralistic perspective," Duncan said.

Other polling from the Sutherland Institute shows housing is the most important issue for about half of Utahns, compared to about 7% who prioritize regulation of technology companies.

"So, they're pretty small comparatively, but once people become aware of the issue, then they're very supportive," Duncan said. "But it's my sense that it's not something that people were thinking, 'Gosh, when is the Legislature finally going to act on this?'"

Still, the issue felt like a big win for Vega.

"It's super hard when you are a parent because your kids are like, 'Well, all my friends have it,'" she said. "Then let's learn how we can regulate and monitor it and keep it safe. Because you wouldn't give your kid a loaded gun. Don't give them a phone with free access to everything. It's almost the same thing, in my opinion."

No phones in schools?

Lawmakers didn't just go after smartphone app stores this session, they also sought to limit the use of smartphones themselves in K-12 classrooms. Many school districts have already implemented policies restricting phone use, but SB178 creates a statewide default restriction.

School districts can tighten or loosen those regulations as they see fit, but bill sponsor Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, argues the bill takes a "light touch" to regulation while still combating the distraction phones can cause in classrooms.

"It's the last four years where you legally have to learn anything," Anna Sokol, an Alta High School senior, told a Senate committee of the four mandated years of high school. "The seven hours a day we have in school should not be a part of the screen time statistics that our generation has."

Data privacy

Cox — a longtime crusader against social media companies — called out HB418 as his favorite bill of the 2025 legislative session. Sponsored by freshman Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman, the bill allows users of online platforms to take their data with them if they move to another platform, and allows users to delete personal online data.

"This is a huge bill," Cox told KSL.com Friday. "It has consequences that could reverberate across the globe, and it really is about giving us our data back in powerful ways. ... It's something that we've been pushing for some time and Utah is the first state to do it. We know that from the Vatican to Washington, D.C., they're talking about this bill."

Senate Majority Assistant Whip Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, the bill's Senate sponsor and Cox's brother-in-law, said the bill "turns users into customers instead of products."

The bill takes effect May 7.

Related topics