What Utah’s New Social Media Law Means for Marketers

Utah becomes the first state to have laws on the books to regulate kids’ usage of social media. But the new bills, signed into law by Gov. Spencer J. Cox last week, could have a limited impact on marketers since ad targeting of children between 13 to 17 years is already limited.

Utah H.B. 311 and S.B. 152 are set to go into effect March 1, 2024. The first requires social media platforms to verify a user’s age. Those under 18 will have curfews imposed and need parental or guardian consent to access their accounts between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. Meanwhile, social media platforms cannot collect children’s data or display targeted ads to them.

The second law requires social media giants to ensure their platforms are not designed to cause addiction to minors, who will have the ability to sue the platforms if they believe they’ve become addicted or harmed by the platform.

“It’s a strong headline signaling that a national regulation of these platforms in regard to teens is coming and will have true impacts on advertisers,” Nathan Byrd, founder of Division Social, tells Adweek. Byrd believes the biggest impact on marketers is higher CPMs at certain times of the day for Utah users. With 3.44 million people, Utah is the 30th most-populous U.S. state.

Social media companies could choose to wall off Utah, said Gary Kibel, a privacy and data security lawyer of Davis and Gilbert.

Regulation overreach?

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is concerned that Utah’s second law would unduly curtail the First Amendment rights of both young people to access advertising-based information and businesses to share it.

The answer is not abstinence or full parental insight.

Larissa May, founder, #HalfTheStory

“The law limits the ability of older teens to get the information they need, including ad-based information about colleges, trade programs, military recruitment, job opportunities, and apartments,” said Chris Oswald, evp and head of law, ethics, and government relations at the ANA.

The law’s age-gating provision will also create inconveniences and privacy concerns for the state’s residents of all ages. Adults will have to fill out forms to prove their age before using popular websites and services, while companies may feel obligated to collect and maintain new databases about both adults and minors for compliance reasons.

According to Larissa May, founder of the nonprofit #HalfTheStory, the Utah laws are not equitable and do not consider children who live in unsafe environments.

“Digital well-being is a spectrum, and the answer is not abstinence or full parental insight,” May told Adweek. “Think of it like this: Would you have wanted your parent to have a video camera with you and full access to your life as a teenager? This is essentially it.”

The path to a federal law?

The Utah law was passed on the same day TikTok’s CEO appeared before Congress to testify on the safety concerns surrounding the app, ranging from mental health impacts to national security concerns. TikTok is wholly owned by Chinese company ByteDance.

Social media companies are already required to comply with the federal COPPA law that protects children under the age of 13. But loopholes have led to advertisers unknowingly collecting children’s data. California, too, passed a similar law that increases the privacy settings for minors and prohibits the collection of location data of those users by social media companies.

“Those requirements are unnecessary and burdensome,” said Oswald.

The ANA encourages legislators to look at more nuanced standards that recognize the difference between a 7-year-old and a 17-year-old to protect younger children without denying older teens access to ad-based content and information available to them online.

Other states, including Arkansas, Connecticut, New Jersey and Texas, are considering similar legislation to protect children.