STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 1534-26
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2026
RE: S.B. No. 2761
S.D. 2
H.D. 2
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2026
State of Hawaii
Madame:
Your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred S.B. No. 2761, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOCIAL MEDIA,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to:
(1) Require a social media platform to take reasonable steps to verify the age of new and existing account holders on the social media platform; and
(2) Prohibit a social media platform from allowing individuals under sixteen years of age to be an account holder, absent the express consent of a parent or legal guardian.
Your Committee finds that social media platforms employ engagement‑driven design features that can be particularly harmful to minors, who often lack the developmental capacity to self‑regulate their online behavior. Your Committee further finds that unrestricted access to social media by young users has been associated with adverse impacts on youth mental health and well‑being, and that existing voluntary safeguards have proven insufficient to prevent underage access.
Your Committee additionally finds that requiring reasonable age‑verification measures and limiting access by minors, absent parental consent, promotes consumer protection by safeguarding children and families from practices that may undermine healthy development. However, digital application stores may be better positioned to verify the age of a user, which will provide a single point of verification, rather than several fragmented verifications.
Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Requiring digital application store providers to verify the age of users and obtain verifiable parental consent before allowing young persons to download or purchase, or make a purchase on, a social media platform, rather than requiring social media platforms to verify the age of all users;
(2) Requiring social media platforms to rely on the age data provided by digital application store providers, but requiring social media platforms to identify young person users through their algorithms and determine whether verifiable parental consent has been obtained; and
(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2761, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2761, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce,
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____________________________ SCOT Z. MATAYOSHI, Chair |
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