SB2761 HD2

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that social media companies function by compelling their users to spend as much time as possible on their platforms. By generating revenue from advertising on their platforms, social media companies operate under a model that encourages optimization for users' time spent on the platform and resist any platform changes, including safety changes, that could decrease stay time because every minute spent on the platform increases profitability and the company's bottom line.

The legislature further finds that social media companies employ a variety of features described as coercive design tactics, which foster psychological dependence and take advantage of the same dopamine-inducing strategies employed by the gambling industry to make the platform as addictive as possible and keep users returning and spending as much time as possible on the social media platform. These tactics are particularly harmful to children because children have minimal ability to self-regulate effectively and lack executive function to control their screen time.

The legislature further finds that the United States Surgeon General's Advisory of 2023 states that the nation is experiencing a "youth mental health crisis". The United States Surgeon General noted that despite some social benefits, numerous studies suggest that social media use presents a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Factors such as the amount of time children and adolescents spend on social media platforms, the type of content and interactions children and adolescents experience, and disruptions to other activities essential for health, such as sleep and exercise, can play a complex role in the impact of social media on an individual child's or adolescent's mental health. The United States Surgeon General also expresses serious concern with the way social media is designed, deployed, and utilized while the outcomes for today's generations of children and adolescents remain unknown.

The legislature also finds that some social media companies have implemented age verification systems and made other efforts to protect minor users. However, the legislature believes these actions to be inadequate. Reporters and nonprofits have been able to create fake accounts that allow them to pass as children and children have no problem creating fake accounts that allow them to pass as adults.

The legislature further finds that digital application stores may be better positioned to verify the age of an account holder. By requiring age verification at the level of the digital application stores, there will be a single point of verification rather than several fragmented, less effective checks by multiple social media platforms, will operate as a preventive measure by preventing minors from accessing social media platforms, rather than trying to restrict a minor's access after the fact.

The legislature further finds that the State has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of minors. However, minors also have a First Amendment right to free speech. A narrowly-tailored approach that protects minors from the harms proposed by social media, while still enabling minors to engage in constitutionally protected speech, is therefore needed.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to, under the laws regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices:

(1) Require a digital application store provider to verify the age of users, require parental consent for users under sixteen years of age to download or purchase, or make a purchase on, a social media platform, and distribute that information to social media platforms; and

(2) Require social media platforms to obtain the age information from digital application store providers, determine whether parental consent has been provided for young persons, and take reasonable steps to identify young person users through their algorithms.

SECTION 2. Chapter 481B, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part I to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§481B- Digital application stores; social media platforms; users under sixteen years of age; parental consent. (a) A digital application store provider shall:

(1) At the time an individual who is located in the State creates an account with the digital application store provider:

(A) Request age information from the individual; and

(B) Verify the individual's age category using methods that are reasonably designed to ensure accuracy;

(2) If the age verification method determines the individual is a young person, obtain verifiable parental consent before allowing the young person to:

(A) Download a social media platform;

(B) Purchase a social media platform; or

(3) Provide to a social media platform, in response to a request authorized under subsection (b):

(A) Age category data for a user located in the State; and

(B) The status of verified parental consent for a young person located in the State; and

(4) Notify a social media platform when a parent revokes parental consent.

(b) A social media platform shall:

(1) Verify through the digital application store provider's data sharing methods:

(A) The age category of users located in the State; and

(B) For a young person account, whether verifiable parental consent has been obtained;

(2) Request personal age category data or parental consent:

(A) At the time a user:

(i) Downloads a social media platform; or

(ii) Purchases a social media platform; or

(B) To comply with applicable laws or regulations.

(3) Take reasonable steps to identify young person users through the social media platform's algorithms and verify the user's age to determine whether the user is subject to paragraph (4); and

(4) Not permit any individual the social media platform knows to be a young person to be an account holder unless the individual has verifiable parental consent.

(c) Any violation of this section shall constitute an unfair or deceptive act or practice in the conduct of trade or commerce within the meaning of section 480-2.

(d) For the purposes of this section:

"Age category" means one of the following categories of individuals based on age:

(1) "Young person", which means an individual who is less than sixteen years of age;

(2) "Older teenager", which means an individual who is at least sixteen years of age and under eighteen years of age; or

(3) "Adult", which means an individual who is at least eighteen years of age.

"Age category data" means information about a user's age category that is collected by a digital application store provider and shared with a social media platform.

"Application" means a software application or electronic service that a user may run or direct on a mobile device.

"Digital application store" means a publicly available website, software application, or electronic service that distributes applications from third-party social media platforms to users.

"Digital application store provider" means a person that owns, operates, or controls a digital application store that distributes applications to users in the State.

"Social media platform" means a public or semi-public internet-based service or application that allows users to view content generated by other users or create content viewable by other users of the platform's applications, in any format, including but not limited to text, pictures, and videos, through a landing page, main feed, or other surface, and that primarily serves as a medium for users to interact with content generated by other users of the platform; provided that no service or application that exclusively provides email or direct messaging services shall be considered to meet this criterion on the basis of that function alone.

"Verifiable parental consent" means authorization that:

(1) Is provided by an individual who the digital application store provider has verified is an adult;

(2) Is given after the digital application store provider has clearly and conspicuously provided the parental consent disclosure to the individual; and

(3) Requires the parent to make an affirmative choice to:

(A) Grant consent; or

(B) Decline consent.

"Young person account" means an account with a digital application store provider that is established by an individual who the digital application store provider has determined is under sixteen years old through the digital application store provider's age verification methods."

SECTION 3. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on January 1, 2077.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2761
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026		S.D. 2
STATE OF HAWAII		H.D. 2