Providing for protection of minors on social media; and imposing penalties.
SB22 would add a new chapter to Title 50 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes focused on protecting minors on social media. The bill declares legislative findings about the prevalence of teen social media use and its association with depression, anxiety, self-harm, and other harms, and it sets out a regulatory framework aimed at limiting minors’ exposure to harmful content and data practices on social media platforms.
The bill would require social media companies to make commercially reasonable efforts to verify user age and, for minors under 16, obtain express parental or guardian consent before allowing account creation unless the platform has no reason to believe the user is a minor. It also gives parents or guardians tools to supervise accounts, revoke consent, and receive notice if a minor opens an account without permission. Platforms would have to maintain consent records, provide notice of these requirements, and suspend or disable accounts when consent is revoked or missing.
SB22 also restricts how platforms may use minors’ data. It would prohibit mining data from minors’ accounts, selling minors’ personal information, and using targeted advertising based on a minor’s age, gender, or interests. In addition, it would generally bar personalized recommendation systems for minors unless the minor opts in, while allowing limited exceptions for age-appropriate content, safety, and necessary processing. The bill further creates a right for qualified individuals, including parents/guardians and adults whose data was collected as minors, to request correction or deletion of personal information collected when they were minors.
Enforcement authority would rest exclusively with the Attorney General, who could bring actions for violations and seek civil penalties, attorney fees, and in some cases injunctive relief. Penalties escalate for repeated violations, including substantial fines for multi-minor violations and the possibility of barring a company from operating accounts for minors in Pennsylvania after repeated intentional violations. Money recovered from certain penalties would be deposited into the School Safety and Security Fund for mental health-related services for school entities. The bill would take effect 18 months after enactment.
The overall sentiment reflected in the bill text is strongly protective of children and skeptical of social media platforms’ effects on youth, with the findings emphasizing mental health risks and the need for parental oversight and company accountability. Because there are no committee transcripts or recorded votes provided, there is no additional evidence of debate, amendments, or formal support/opposition in the available context. The main likely points of contention are the scope of age verification, parental consent requirements, restrictions on recommendation systems and targeted advertising, and the breadth of Attorney General enforcement and penalties, especially for platforms that may argue the bill is difficult to implement or overbroad.
SB22 would amend Title 50 by creating a new chapter regulating social media use by minors, imposing duties on social media companies, and authorizing the Attorney General to enforce compliance. It would affect social media platforms operating in Pennsylvania, parents and guardians of minors, and minors themselves by requiring parental consent for account creation, limiting data collection and advertising practices, and creating deletion rights for information collected from minors. It also would direct certain penalty revenues to the School Safety and Security Fund for mental health-related services.
The bill’s stated purpose and structure reflect a strong pro-child, pro-parent, and public-health-oriented approach, with the legislature framing social media as a risk to minors’ mental health and safety. No votes or committee discussion were provided, so there is no recorded legislative sentiment beyond the bill’s text. Based on the text alone, the measure appears designed to appeal to concerns about youth well-being, parental control, and platform accountability.
The most likely areas of contention are the bill’s age-verification and parental-consent mandates, which could be viewed as burdensome or difficult to implement at scale, and the restrictions on data mining, targeted advertising, and personalized recommendation systems, which could significantly alter platform operations. Another likely dispute is the enforcement regime: the Attorney General has exclusive jurisdiction, penalties are substantial, and repeated violations could lead to a ban on operating minors’ accounts in Pennsylvania. Supporters would likely emphasize child safety and mental health protections, while critics may focus on privacy, feasibility, free-expression concerns, and the risk of over-enforcement.