Digital wellness lobbyists in the Bay Area hope to see Senate Bill 680 passed in 2024 to further protect youth mental health from the potential harm of social media.
SB 680, drafted by State Senator Nancy Skinner, a Democrat representing parts of the East Bay, aimed to hold social media companies accountable for content that promotes eating disorder, suicide and drug addiction. The bill was halted at the Assembly Appropriations Committee in September.
The defeat of SB 680 marked a major setback in California’s efforts to protect youth in the digital space. Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the first-in-nation bill that prevents companies with online service from collecting, selling or keeping personal information of users under the age of 18.
Still, a lawsuit from forty-one states’ attorneys general and D.C. against Facebook’s and Instagram’s parent company Meta on Oct 24 have brought new hope to those advocating for the passage of SB 680. In the lawsuit, states accused Meta of exploiting young users’ engagement on the platform for profit and failing to disclose safety features.
Digital wellbeing nonprofit #HalfTheStory, actively involved in the lobbying for SB 680, is preparing to bring the bill back amid the nationwide movement of holding social media companies accountable for the harms their products have on youth mental health.
Larissa May, the founder of #HalfTheStory said they are currently working on their 2024 legislative strategy. As the planning is still in the works, she couldn’t disclose the policy initiatives just yet.
Since the lawsuits against Meta, May witnessed an noticeable uptick in conversation about youth mental health.
“I believe we’ve reached a tipping point where individuals are expressing a strong desire for tangible and substantive actions,” May said in an email.
The lawsuit also transitioned the onus of responsibility from parents to the companies that designed these platforms. Parental supervision over their children’s digital footprint has been a temporary solution.
Supervision features on Instagram allow guardians to see who their children follow, monitor how much time they spend on the platform, and set time limits. But not every family has time for this kind of supervision.
“You already see so much inequity in the way social media is used,” National Alliance on Mental Health Illness board member Sophie Szew said. Szew is a proponent of SB 680 who testified on the state senate floor with #HalfTheStory.
The overwhelming amount of content about eating disorders on Instagram led to an anorexia diagnosis for her in high school, and she survived multiple organ failure.
“You have so many people spending so much time engaging with this content, and all that time amounts to more dollars for social media companies. This bill was kind of predicated on all of that information, and it’s super important to keep in mind what it really did to build up to all this momentum now,” Szew said.
On the national public health level, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory in June, warning of increased risks of depression and anxiety correlated to social media use. He addressed the stigma parents face in supporting their children’s mental health at a panel discussion at Stanford University on Oct 30.
“For many parents, if they look at their kids’ struggles with mental health as evidence of their own failure as parents, then they often don’t talk to other parents about it,” Murthy said.
The youth also experience a shift of blame from themselves to the social media companies. Social media bills and lawsuits against these companies underscore that the youth are exposed to harmful content rather than attributing something wrong to themselves.
“I’m very thankful that people who are in the position that we were in 10 years ago, when we were first downloading social media, will now have the language to feel like they are not at fault,” Szew said.
There remains the limitations on how much lawmakers could influence private companies and address the harm done.
“I wish I could tell you that there’s one simple law we could pass that would take care of our own mental health crisis,” Murthy said.
While awaiting the return of SB 680, lobbyists are closely monitoring the lawsuits against Meta. They are also preparing to further adjust their strategy to get SB 680 and other social media bills passed if no significant changes result from these lawsuits.
“To date the individual hits or lawsuits against the companies have not been significant enough. However, there remains a realistic possibility that this might primarily serve as an expensive public relations campaign for the harms of social media.” May said.
