Social media use by minors.
HB 1321 would regulate social media services that allow Indiana residents to create accounts, with a focus on minors. The bill requires platforms to use a “reasonable age verification method” when a person requests an account or when an existing account holder is identified as a minor. If the user is under 18, the platform may only create or maintain the account with written parental or guardian consent, and existing minor accounts would be suspended after notice if consent is not provided within 14 days.
The bill also imposes account-design requirements for minors whom the platform knows, or reasonably should know, are Indiana residents. Those accounts would be limited in who can direct-message the minor, whether the account appears in search results, whether the minor receives advertising or content recommendations, and when the minor may access the account. Parents or guardians would receive separate credentials allowing them to view activity, adjust certain settings, and set daily time limits. The bill further restricts social media services from collecting, using, or disclosing a minor’s personal information except as needed to comply with Indiana or federal law.
HB 1321 would add a new Article 16 to Title 24 of the Indiana Code governing social media providers, while also amending Indiana’s deceptive practices law to make intentional violations of the new social media rules an actionable deceptive act. It creates enforcement authority for the attorney general under the state consumer protection statute and also gives parents or guardians a private right of action for violations involving a minor’s account, with remedies including actual or liquidated damages, injunctive relief, attorney’s fees, and costs. The bill separately creates a private right of action for individuals whose identifying information is improperly retained, used, or collected during age verification. In practice, the measure would impose compliance, verification, privacy, and account-management obligations on social media companies operating for Indiana residents, especially those serving minors.
No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate or recorded support/opposition in the materials supplied. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears to reflect a protective, child-safety-oriented approach to online platform regulation, emphasizing parental consent, privacy, and limits on minors’ exposure to platform features. The absence of recorded votes or hearing discussion means the overall legislative sentiment cannot be measured from the available context.
The main points of likely contention are the scope and feasibility of age verification, the privacy implications of collecting identifying information to verify age, and the breadth of the restrictions placed on social media platforms. Technology and civil-liberties concerns may arise over whether platforms can reliably determine who is a minor and an Indiana resident, and whether the bill’s limits on content, advertising, search visibility, and messaging are overbroad or difficult to implement. Another likely point of dispute is enforcement: the bill authorizes both attorney general actions and private lawsuits, which could be viewed as strengthening accountability or, alternatively, as exposing platforms to significant litigation risk. Parents and child-safety advocates would likely support the bill’s protections, while social media companies and privacy advocates may object to the operational burden and data-collection constraints.