Virginia Attorney General to enforce new social media restrictions for minors

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Attorney General Jay Jones is pledging to use his office to enforce Virginia’s social media restrictions on children under the age of 16.
The AG announced this week that it will go after social media platforms that are not in compliance with the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, which limits minors’ use of social media to just one hour per day, unless a parent chooses to increase the time.
“The Attorney General’s office will communicate evidence of non-compliance directly to companies and provide 30 days to remedy the violation as required by law,” the AG’s release reads. “If they continue to violate the law, the Attorney General will file enforcement actions, which could result in up to $7,500 in civil penalties for each violation, as well as injunctive relief to stop violating social media platforms from continuing the conduct in violation of the law.”
But Nancy Deutsch, a professor at the University of Virginia and a co-director of the Thriving Youth in a Digital Age initiative, says it may not be that simple, and that enforcement is likely to run into a number of challenges.

“I think the follow through is going to be difficult,” Deutsch said. “Teens often know how to get around things...The key thing is really about understanding and communicating with teens, you know, why is it that we want them to limit social media use, really understanding, what is it that they’re using it for, and then working with them to set reasonable limits.”
Jones has also filed a motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit brought by NetChoice, a trade group that has argued Virginia’s restriction is in violation of the First Amendment.
Deutsch says that many of the teens they work with do express interest in guardrails on their social media use, and emphasized that each family should be having these discussions independent of the law.
“They’re going to turn 16, and they’re going to have to build the skills to self-regulate,” Deutsch said. “Whether or not the law works, we all need to be engaging the young people in our lives to help them develop self-regulation skills to manage their digital time.”

Virginia’s social media law originally passed under Governor Glenn Youngkin and has received significant bipartisan support.
As is the case with other nations and states developing social media laws for kids, Deutsch says only time will tell how effective these restrictions will be on improving outcomes for youth.
“Some of the bipartisan support actually stems from a really positive thing...that demonstrates that we all are really concerned and taking seriously youth mental health,” Deutsch said. “I think in terms of the effectiveness of whether these bans will solve the youth mental health crisis, I think the answer is no, it’s much more complicated than that.”
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