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Utah Enacts Social Media Regulation Act
Practical Law Legal Update w-038-9626 (Approx. 4 pages)
Utah Enacts Social Media Regulation Act
by Practical Law Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
| Law stated as of 27 Mar 2023 • Utah |
Utah has enacted the Social Media Regulation Act aimed at protecting social media users under 18 years of age by restricting social media access, limiting collection and use of minors' data, prohibiting advertisements and addictive design features, and imposing age verification and parental consent requirements. The Act includes private causes of action for financial, physical, and emotional harm and for social media addiction.
On March 23, 2023, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed the Utah Social Media Regulation Act (SB 152 and HB 311). The Act applies to social media platforms, with certain exceptions, that have 5,000,000 or more account holders worldwide, and protects Utah social media users and account holders under 18 years of age.
SB 152 requires social media platforms to:
- Verify the age of a new user at account creation, or for an existing account within 14 days of account access.
- Obtain express parental consent for a minor to open or hold an account.
- Implement security rules to protect age verification and parental consent data.
- Provide parents with a means to view all posts and messages in a minor's account.
- Deny access to a minor's account from 10:30pm to 6:30am, subject to parental discretion.
SB 152 prohibits platforms from:
- Collecting or using personal information from a minor's account usage activity, with limited exceptions.
- Targeting or suggesting groups, services, products, posts, accounts, or users in a minor's account.
- Displaying ads in a minor's account.
- Allowing direct messaging to a minor's account, unless the account is linked through friending.
- Showing a minor's account in search results, unless the user is linked to the account through friending.
Utah's Division of Consumer Protection will enforce the Act and promulgate rules. Under SB 152, the Division of Consumer Protection can impose administrative fines of up to $2,500 per violation and bring an enforcement action against a platform that fails to cure a violation within 30 days, or that timely cures a violation but then violates the same provision. In an enforcement action, the court may:
- Impose civil penalties up to $2,500 per violation.
- Issue an injunction.
- Order disgorgement.
- Award actual damages to injured consumers.
SB 152 creates a private right of action for damages the greater of $2,500 per incident of violation or actual damages for financial, physical, or emotional harm if the court determines the harm is a direct consequence of violations.
HB 311 prohibits platforms from using any practice, design, or feature that a platform knows or, under a standard of reasonable care should know, causes platform addiction, with penalties up to $250,000 per practice, design, or feature, and up to $2,500 per affected Utah minor account holder. Platforms that implement a quarterly audit program and correct identified problem features within 30 days of audit have an affirmative defense against penalties.
HB 311 also creates a private cause of action for addiction, financial, physical, or emotional harm suffered by a minor, for the greater of:
- $2,500 per incident.
- Actual damages, if the court determines the harm occurred and is a direct consequence of using or having a social media account.
For minors under 16 years of age, HB 311 imposes a rebuttable presumption that the harm occurred and was a consequence of using or having the account.
The Utah Social Media Regulation Act becomes effective May 3, 2023, with most provisions taking effect March 1, 2024.
Update: On January 19, 2024, the Utah Social Media Regulation Act's effective date was delayed to October 1, 2024 (see SB 89).