A new California bill could bar social media companies from sending addictive feeds to children without parental consent, and if passed would make California the first in the nation to have such a law, according to Sen. Nancy Skinner, who recently introduced the bill.

“Social media companies have designed their platforms to addict users, especially our kids. Countless studies show that once a young person has a social media addiction, they experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem,” she said in a press release Jan. 29 announcing the bill.

Under Senate Bill 976, parents could choose settings on how algorithms on their children’s electronic devices function: either recommended content based on a user’s preferences or the default option, which shows content from the users one follows chronologically.

At issue are algorithmic feeds that keep kids scrolling on their phones for too long, which can negatively impact their mental health, according to various lawmakers and state leaders in support of the bill.

“Social media companies have shown us time and time again that for profits, they are willing to harness addictive content to target a vulnerable population: our children,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a sponsor of the bill, said in a press release, issued by his office, Jan. 29.

The bill, also known as “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction,” would also prohibit online platforms from sending notifications to youth without the consent of a parent or guardian between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. and on school days from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m, according to the bill’s text.

Also, such platforms would be required to set a default time limit of one hour daily for youth accounts, which can be adjusted by parents, according to Ms. Skinner’s press release.

Ms. Skinner cited a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which reported children in the United States spend between six to 14 hours daily in front of a screen, with “much of that time viewing social media content,” she said in her press release.

Social media apps are seen on Apple iPhone 5s Jan. 22, 2014 in Washington, DC. (Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images)

The bill is also sponsored by the Association of California School Administrators and co-authored by a bipartisan group of five state senators including Ben Allen, Angelique Ashby, María Elena Durazo, Scott Wilk, and Susan Rubio.

Sen. Rubio, in Mr. Bonta’s press relese, said as a former teacher for two decades, she has witnessed the damaging effects social media have had on children’s development.

“As a classroom teacher for almost 20 years, I saw firsthand the growing negative impact that cellphones and social media applications caused on students. Their addictive effects were not only disruptive to learning, the unfettered and often unmonitored access to the internet and social media platforms endangered them in ways they were too young to understand,” she said.

The proposed new law comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by Mr. Bonta’s office last October against Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, where he accused the platforms of intentionally designing and “deploying” addictive features that can cause harm to children and teenagers, such as the use of algorithms, according to Mr. Bonta’s office.

One of the “damning revelations” include a time where Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg vetoed a proposed internal policy by Meta that would ban image filters that simulate the effects of plastic surgery, despite internal pushback and “an expert consensus that such filters harms users’ mental health, especially for women and girls,” according to Mr. Bonta’s press release.

Another bill, AB 1949, also recently introduced by Asm. Buffy Wicks, called California Children’s Data Privacy Act, would additionally restrict social media platforms who collect, use, or share the data of their users, by requiring the consent of users under the age of 18 and the consent from a parent for those under 13.

Existing law allows the collection of data for underage users as long as it’s not sold to third parties.

Companies such as Google and Meta have exploited collected data from children to monetize it on a “massive scale” by including features and “manipulative techniques” that coerces youth to spend hours online, according to Mr. Bonta’s office, who is also a sponsor of Ms. Wick’s proposed bill.

“In a digital age where the vulnerabilities of young users are continually exploited, we cannot afford to let our laws lag behind—our children deserve complete assurance that their online experience will be safeguarded from invasive practices,” Ms. Wicks said in the same announcement with the attorney general.

California's Capitol building in Sacramento, Calif., on the night of Jan. 9, 2024. (Travis Gillmore/The Epoch Times)