Social media platforms requirements establishment related to accounts for minors

A bill for an act

relating to civil law; establishing requirements for social media platforms related

to accounts for minors; establishing enforcement mechanisms for regulations on

child social media accounts; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes,

chapter 325M.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

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[325M.40] STOP HARMS FROM ADDICTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA.

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Subdivision 1.

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Definitions.

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(a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have

the meanings given.

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(b) "Account holder" means a resident of the state who has an account or a profile with

a covered social media platform with a unique identifier, during any period in which that

covered social media platform knows or should reasonably know the account holder is

physically located in the state.

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(c) "Addictive interface features" means:

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(1) infinite scrolling meaning either continuously loading content, content that loads as

the account holder scrolls down the page without the need to open a separate page, seamless

content, or the use of pages with no visible or apparent end or page breaks;

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(2) display of a profile-based feed;

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(3) push notifications, whether audible, visual, or tactile, designed to call the attention

of the account holder to newly posted content, user responses to content posted by the

account holder, or other specific activities or events related to the account holder's account,

but not including notifications for the purposes of alerting the account holder to incoming

calls, text messages, email messages, or similar messages sent by human contact and

delivered by means of any application;

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(4) autoplay video or video that begins to play without the account holder first clicking

on the video or on a play button for that video;

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(5) display of personal metrics that indicate the number of times other users have clicked

a button or taken other action to indicate their reaction to content posted by the account

holder or have shared or reposted content posted by the account holder; or

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(6) display of awards, badges, tiers, or any form of recognition of the account holder

based on hours spent by the account holder on the social media platform, numbers of

followers, numbers of postings, frequency or regularity of postings, or any other metric of

usage or performance on the social media platform.

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(d) "Child" means an individual who is age 15 or younger and residing in Minnesota.

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(e) "Covered social media platform" means a social media platform which earned at

least $1,000,000,000 in advertising revenues worldwide in one or more of the preceding

three years.

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(f) "Minor" means an individual who is under the age of 18.

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(g) "Notice" to a parent has the meaning established in the Children's Online Privacy

Protection Act, United States Code, title 15, section 6501, and implementing regulations at

Code of Federal Regulations, title 16, section 312.4.

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(h) "Paid commercial advertising" is advertising for which the social media platform

receives compensation of any sort in return for displaying the advertising and that seeks to

encourage the account holder to purchase a product or service or otherwise engage in a

commercial transaction or to follow a link to a website that encourages the account holder

to engage in a commercial transaction.

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(i) "Parent" means any parent under state law or any legal guardian or legal custodian

of a child who is a resident of the state.

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(j) "Personal information" means information about an account holder collected online

that comprises personal information within the meaning of the Children's Online Privacy

Protection Act, United States Code, title 15, section 6501(8), and the implementing

regulations at Code of Federal Regulations, title 16, section 312.2. Personal information

also includes any record of or derived from online activity or history, search history, or

online communications of an account holder with respect to any application, website, or

social media platform; any photograph or biometric information that is used or could

reasonably be used to identify the account holder, including but not limited to fingerprints,

voiceprints, iris or retina imagery scans, facial templates, or gait imagery or metrics; and

any geolocation information associated with an account holder or with a device of an account

holder. Personal information does not include an express search term, request, or selection

submitted by the account holder during the current session on the covered social media

platform; an identifier used solely for the purpose of directing personal communications to

or from the account holder; information that comprises account holder-selected or

parent-selected settings relating to privacy, accessibility, or blocking of age-inappropriate

content; or technical information concerning the account holder's device.

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(k) "Profile-based feed" means a feed in which the material presented has been selected

or prioritized by the social media platform for display to an account holder based in whole

or in part on personal information of that account holder, except that inclusion in a feed of

content created by a third party that is displayed to the account holder because the account

holder has taken an affirmative step to select the third-party's content for inclusion in the

feed displayed to the account holder, such as by following, friending, or engaging in similar

actions in relation to the third party and not otherwise selected or prioritized for display to

the account holder based on personal information, shall not render the feed a profile-based

feed. Additionally, exclusion by a covered social media platform of certain content from

the feed of an account holder based on information about or any estimate of the age of an

account holder solely for the purpose of excluding content that is (1) obscene as to children

aged 15 or younger, or (2) by policy of the covered social media platform is not suitable

for presentation to children of that age shall not render that feed a profile-based feed.

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(l) "Social media platform" means an Internet website or application that is open to the

public; allows a user to create an account; enables an account holder to communicate with

other users for the primary purpose of posting and viewing information, comments, messages,

images, or videos; and utilizes addictive interface features, provides profile-based feeds, or

utilizes personal information to display targeted paid commercial advertising. Social media

platform does not include:

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(1) a broadband Internet access service as defined by the Federal Communications

Commission;

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(2) an online service, website, or application where the exclusive function is the support

of communications, including email, video conference capabilities, or direct messaging

consisting of text, photographs, pictures, images, or videos only between the sender and

recipients specifically identified by the sender, without displaying or posting publicly or to

other users not specifically identified as the recipients by the sender; or

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(3) an online service, application, or website with content consisting primarily of

information or content that is not user generated.

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(m) "Targeted paid commercial advertising" means paid commercial advertising that

has been selected or prioritized for display to an account holder based in whole or in part

on account activity or personal information of the account holder, except that advertising

selected for display to an account holder shall not constitute targeted paid commercial

advertising if that selection process considers information about or an estimate of the age

of the account holder solely for the purpose of excluding advertisements which by law or

policy of the covered media platform are not suitable for presentation to a child of that age.

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(n) "Verifiable parental consent" has the meaning established in the Children's Online

Privacy Protection Act, United States Code, title 15, section 6501(9), and the implementing

regulations at Code of Federal Regulations, title 16, section 312.5, with the added requirement

that the covered social media platform has retained documentation sufficient to reasonably

establish that it has obtained verifiable parental consent within the meaning of those

provisions.

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Subd. 2.

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Age estimation.

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(a) When an account holder has been on the covered social

media platform for 25 hours or more within a six-month period, the covered social media

platform has 14 days to use reasonable means and reasonable efforts, taking into consideration

available technology and the data in the possession of the covered social media platform,

to estimate the age of the account holder. If the covered social media platform is able to

conclude with 80 percent confidence that the account holder is over 15 years of age, the

covered social media platform may treat the account holder to be other than a child for

purposes of this section. Otherwise, the covered social media platform must treat the account

holder as a child for purposes of this section.

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(b) When an account holder has been on the covered social media platform for 50 hours

or more within a six-month period, the covered social media platform has 14 days to use

reasonable means and reasonable efforts to revise its estimate of the age of the account

holder. If the covered social media platform is able to conclude with 90 percent confidence

that the account holder is over 15 years of age, the covered social media platform may treat

the account holder to be other than a child for purposes of this section. Otherwise, the

covered social media platform must treat the account holder as a child for purposes of this

section. A covered social media platform shall update its estimate of the age of each account

holder after every additional 100 hours spent by the account holder on the platform, or as

often as the covered social media platform applies any form of data analytics or artificial

intelligence to update its estimate of any other demographic characteristics of the account

holder for any reason, whichever period is shorter.

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(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to create any duty on the part of a covered

social media platform to request, collect, or retain any information from or about any account

holder. The age estimate required by this section shall be derived based on information

collected and retained by the covered social media platform in the ordinary course of

operation of the social media platform, and a covered social media platform shall have no

obligation under this section to estimate the age of an account holder who has had an account

with the covered social media platform continuously for at least seven years or to take any

action with respect to the account.

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Subd. 3.

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Creation and maintenance of child account.

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A covered social media platform

shall require applicants for an account to provide their birth dates as part of the account

application process. A covered social media platform may not create or maintain an account

for a child or change the terms and conditions of an account for a child without first obtaining

verifiable parental consent. Information collected for the purpose of obtaining verifiable

parental consent shall not be used for any purpose other than obtaining verifiable parental

consent and shall be deleted immediately after an attempt to obtain verifiable parental

consent, except to the extent necessary to comply with any other applicable state or federal

law or regulation. A covered social media platform shall provide clear, simple, and

easy-to-locate information related to the creation or maintenance of an account for a child,

including the terms and services agreement.

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Subd. 4.

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Privacy and parental limitations for child account.

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An account for a child

shall have all privacy settings set by default at the most private levels. A covered social

media platform may not change the privacy settings of an account of a child without first

obtaining verifiable parental consent for the change so long as the account holder remains

a child. In the course of obtaining verifiable parental consent for the establishment or

continuation of an account for a child, a covered social media platform shall prominently

provide and explain an option for the parent to make the consent conditional on receipt by

the parent of a separate password that enables the parent to:

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(1) monitor the amount of time the child spends using the covered social media platform;

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(2) set daily and weekly time limits on use of the covered social media platform; and

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(3) set limits on times of day when the covered social media platform can be accessed

by the child.

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Subd. 5.

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Prohibition on addictive interface; presentation of paid commercial

advertising.

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(a) A social media platform may not present addictive interface features in the

display or feed of any child account.

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(b) A social media platform may not present targeted paid commercial advertising in

the display or feed of any child account.

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Subd. 6.

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Termination of child accounts.

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(a) A covered social media platform has a

continuing obligation to terminate an account should it conclude or obtain information from

which it is reasonable to conclude pursuant to its obligations under this section that the

account holder is a child unless verifiable parental consent has been obtained for the account.

A covered social media platform shall terminate an account of a child within no more than

seven days after receipt of a request for termination from the account holder.

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(b) A covered social media platform shall terminate the account of a child within no

more than 14 days after receipt of a request for termination from a parent of the child. Upon

receipt of the parent's request, the covered social media platform shall verify that the

requesting party is a parent of the account holder by whatever means of verification the

covered social media platform uses for purposes of ascertaining the validity of verifiable

parental consent. A covered social media platform shall provide clear, simple, and

easy-to-locate means for the parent of any child to request termination of any account of a

child.

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(c) If a covered social media platform makes a determination that it must terminate an

account because the account holder has been classified as a child and verifiable parental

consent has not been obtained, the covered social media platform shall notify the account

holder of its intent to terminate the account within seven days of making that determination

and shall provide the reason for its determination. The covered social media platform shall

provide 30 days from the date of the notice for the account holder to dispute the age

classification and complete an age verification process or to provide verifiable parental

consent. If an account holder disputes his or her classification as a child, a covered social

media platform may rely on any commercially reasonable age verification process to resolve

the dispute. A covered social media platform shall make a reasonable determination of the

dispute within 30 days of the completion of the age verification. In the event a covered

social media platform concludes after considering a dispute and the result of any age

verification that the covered social media platform is obligated to terminate an account, it

shall terminate that account within seven days of making that determination.

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Subd. 7.

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Exclusions.

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Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit in any way what

content parents may show to their children. Nothing in this section shall be construed to

limit in any way beyond any limits imposed by other law the results an online search engine

may return in response to a query by a child.

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Subd. 8.

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Enforcement; remedies.

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(a) Contracts formed in violation of this section are

invalid and unenforceable. No part of this section may be waived in a contract or terms of

service agreement.

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(b) A child or parent shall have a private right of action for declaratory or injunctive

relief, general and special damages, court costs and fees, reasonable attorney fees, and any

other appropriate relief as a result of any violation of this section.

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(c) If a covered social media platform permits a child to open or continue an account on

the platform in the absence of parental consent sufficient for the formation of a binding

contract with a minor under ordinary principles of contract law under the laws of this state,

any purported contract pertaining to the account is invalid and unenforceable as contrary

to public policy, including but not limited to any arbitration provision, limitation of liability,

or limitation of remedies, without regard to whether the social media platform had actual

or constructive knowledge that the account holder was a child.

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(d) If a covered social media platform's violation was reckless or knowing, a child or

parent who prevails on a claim based on any violation of this section shall be entitled to

recover $10,000 in statutory damages in addition to actual damages established at trial.

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(e) If a covered social media platform's violation was part of a consistent pattern of

reckless or knowing conduct, punitive damages may be awarded.

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(f) A covered social media platform shall not be liable for any violation of this section

if it has used reasonable means and reasonable efforts, taking into consideration available

technology and the data in possession of the covered social media platform, to comply with

the requirements of this section.

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(g) A civil action for damages for a violation of this section must be brought within three

years of the date the plaintiff knew, or reasonably should have known, of the alleged

violation. However, this limitation period for the action shall be tolled until the child account

holder reaches the age of 18.

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Subd. 9.

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Deceptive trade practices.

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Any knowing or reckless violation of this section

shall constitute a deceptive trade practice and a violation of section 325D.44. The attorney

general shall have enforcement authority under section 8.31.

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EFFECTIVE DATE.

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This section is effective November 1, 2026, and applies to accounts

created before, on, or after that date.

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