Vermont committee hears hours of testimony for S.69 age‑appropriate design code; industry warns of legal risk, advocates cite child harm

The Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development heard three hours of testimony April 8 on S.69, the state's proposed Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC), during which pediatricians, parents and technology policy experts urged new rules to curb social media features they say addict and endanger children while trade groups and platform allies warned the measure could be constitutionally vulnerable and would push companies toward invasive age verification.

Supporters said S.69 focuses on product design and data practices rather than content moderation and would require companies to set the most protective privacy settings by default, limit night notifications and stop design features that foster compulsive use.

"These are health‑harming products," attorney Laura Marquez Garrett of the Social Media Victims Law Center told the committee, describing litigation her firm filed on behalf of Vermont families and summarizing harms she said stem from platforms' design. "Their own documents say, 'the product in itself has baked into it compulsive use.'"

The bill's defenders included medical and child‑welfare experts who cited research and clinical experience. Dr. Heidi Schumacher, speaking for the Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Vermont Medical Society, told lawmakers that social media features designed to extend time online correlate with sleep loss, bullying and mental‑health harms. "There is no doubt these platforms can be positive," Schumacher said, "but too often features intentionally designed to keep kids…