By Habib Sabet/VTDigger
State lawmakers in the Senate Committee on Institutions advanced a bill late last month that would put up guard rails for social media platforms designed to keep teens hooked. The bill, S.69 — known as the “Kids Code” by proponents — will land on the Senate floor for a vote this week after the week-long Town Meeting break.
The legislation would require social media companies to adjust algorithms and design codes for users under 18 years old with the aim of making them less addictive and harmful for teens. The bill would also put up guard rails to prevent tech companies from collecting and sharing the personal data of minors.
“This technology is very complicated, obviously,” Sen. Wendy Harrison, D-Windham, told fellow lawmakers in the Senate Committee on Institutions. “I am very passionate about this legislation because it will benefit both the parents and the kids who are subject to it.”
Likening social media platforms to slot machines, consumer advocates have argued that tech companies use targeted algorithms and features like “endless scrolling” to trap users in cycles of compulsive use, which can have dramatic consequences on the mental health and development of adolescents.
“These companies have spent billions to make their products work this way,” Laura Marquez-Garrett, an attorney with the Social Media Victims Law Center, said in testimony to lawmakers last week.
“Kids are really vulnerable to these designs and they start losing themselves,” she said.
The Kids Code is just one in a constellation of bills lawmakers have taken up this year with the aim of regulating social media companies and strengthening data privacy protections for Vermonters.
That same goal was at the heart of a sweeping data privacy bill lawmakers passed last year, only to have Gov. Phil Scott veto the legislation despite broad support. Drawing on policies already enacted by states like California and Connecticut, the more than 100-page omnibus bill from 2024 patched together a slew of provisions aimed at regulating tech companies, including an earlier version of the Kids Code and statutes providing ground rules for data brokers.
This year, lawmakers are attempting a divide and conquer strategy for the task of reining in big tech.
In addition to S.69, Senate Institution Committee members also last week took up S.71, a bill to establish general ground rules for tech companies that collect, share and sell the data of users in Vermont. That bill would create a private right of action against companies that violate those rules.
Meanwhile, S.70, which hasn’t yet been discussed in committee, would give users the right to request the removal of their data from data brokers. All three Senate bills have companions introduced in the House.
Rep. Monique Priestley, D-Bradford, who was one of the architects of last year’s data legislation and is sponsoring the House bills, said it was “cleaner” to have the legislation broken down into component parts this time around.
“Each one of those bills is now a refined version of what has happened with these bills across the country,” said Priestley, referencing policies from other states that have served as models.
But legislation regulating big tech, including S.69, could see stumbling blocks on the way to Scott’s desk, where it faces the possibility of another veto.
Last year, the omnibus data privacy bill was the subject of intense debate in both chambers before reaching its final form and faced fierce pressure from industry lobbyists who flocked to the State House to argue against the legislation.
Priestley said passing the bills could be a similarly uphill battle this year.
“Because people are losing faith that the federal government will act at this level, everyone realizes that the states are the level that these things are going to get accomplished,” she said. “So everyone is piling on.”
