NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law that will require social media companies to obtain permission from parents before known minors can create an account starting next year.
Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill in April that they said was aimed at protecting children online by restricting their ability to make social media accounts on their own. HB 1891 was introduced by Rep. William Lamberth (R - Portland). It passed the House on March 25 and the Senate on April 8 with bipartisan support.
The law is called the "Protecting Children from Social Media Act." It requires social media companies to verify or deny new accounts to people under 18 years old who aren't emancipated. If minors try to make an account and a social media company can tell it's a minor, the company would have to verify that the child's parent or guardian consents to creating the account.
Ultimately, the bill puts the onus on parents to monitor their kid's activity online.
"Proud to sign the Protecting Children from Social Media Act into law. Parents know best and we must empower them with tools to protect their kids online," Lee said.
The unamended bill wanted to enforce the rule by holding an offending social media company's feet to the fire if they knowingly allowed minors to create accounts. Companies that violate the law could face action from the state attorney general's office if a parent decides to press charges.
That's all still technically true, but the Senate passed an amendment with this bill that reworded it in ways that provide plausible deniability to companies if someone under 18 lies about their age. The amendment clarified a minor is someone "known or reasonably believed by a social media platform" to be under 18 years old. The original bill only defined a minor as someone who was under 18 and not emancipated.
Companies are not required to re-verify ages on accounts, and the law does not include any clauses mandating ways companies are required to verify ages. Lawmakers said they deliberately wrote the bill to leave it up to companies to decide how to verify user ages or enforce parental permission requirements – so long as the companies prove they made a "reasonable effort."
"They have to come up with a mechanism that shows a reasonable effort to ensure that parents have given that consent," said Rep. Jake McCalmon (R - Franklin) on the House floor. "The attorney general does not get involved unless the parents of a child wants to bring action against those companies."
Most social media companies only ask for the user's age or date of birth alone as proof. So long as the company's terms of service are clear that they don't allow underage children to have accounts, it would be difficult to hold the company accountable if a kid lies about their age.
The same legal standard is true with federal COPPA rules meant to protect kids under 13 online. The Federal Trade Commission has said that the rules can't prevent kids from lying or finding ways around bans, so companies can't be held legally accountable unless it's clear the website was directed at children or the operator learns that a particular user is, in fact, a child.
Companies that primarily engage in online shopping, email apps, websites that primarily offer career development opportunities, cloud storage providers, technical support websites, internet service providers and peer-to-peer payment platforms were exempted from the new Tennessee rules.
The law said social media companies aren't allowed to keep any formal identifying information used to verify age or parental consent. It also requires social media companies to provide ways for parents to supervise minors' accounts, such as with daily time restrictions or privacy settings.
The bill passed the House and Senate with largely bipartisan support. Lawmakers voted 30-1 to approve it in the Senate, and 90-2 to approve it in the House. Gov. Lee announced on May 3 that he had signed it into law.
"There's a healthy tension that exists with this legislation. I definitely want parents to be involved in their children's lives when it comes to social media. I think we were just talking earlier, about the number of suicides ... and the number of suicides and social media, and the correlation, is quite scary," said Rep. Justin Pearson (D - Memphis) on the House floor.
The rules will take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
The new law comes after legal battles were launched against Meta, TikTok, YouTube and others.
In March, more than 30 school systems from across Tennessee signed onto a lawsuit targeting popular social media giants for not doing enough to protect kids online. Educators wanted more "actionable accountability" from the companies, including limiting how much they target their platforms to children and working to reduce the negative impacts of social media at large.
Similarly, Tennessee joined dozens of other states in a bipartisan lawsuit against Meta that alleged the company "profited from children's pain" by designing features on Instagram and Facebook to addict kids to its platforms.