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Senate committee advances three bills aimed at protecting minors on social media
Summary
The Senate Committee on Technology and Telecommunications passed three related bills — SB 931, SB 932 and SB 885 — that would require age verification, create new civil remedies for minors and parents, and tighten account-consent rules and platform definitions for children’s accounts.
The Oklahoma Senate Committee on Technology and Telecommunications on Monday advanced three related measures aimed at limiting minors’ exposure to social media harms and giving parents new tools to manage accounts and seek remedies.
Senator Yek, who presented the package, said the bills respond to a U.S. surgeon general advisory and testimony from mental-health and law-enforcement witnesses describing rising rates of suicide, depression, anxiety and exploitation among youth. “I don't believe there's any dispute that much harm can be caused to our children by their use of social media,” Yek said.
The three bills move different pieces of the committee’s approach: SB 931 would require social media platforms to perform “reasonable age verification methods” and provide supervisory tools and parental controls; SB 932 would allow minors or their parents or guardians to bring civil actions against platforms under specified circumstances; and SB 885, titled the Safe Screens for Kids Act, would require parental written consent for minors to create or maintain accounts and prohibit certain targeting mechanics for child accounts. An amendment to SB 885 clarified what qualifies as a social media platform.
Lawmakers spent most of the committee debate on how verification would work, who could bring lawsuits and which enforcement authority should be used. Senator Bullard asked how platforms would tell whether a registrant is a child and whether verification might rely on site metrics or ID checks; Yek said platforms could use site metrics and “ask for an ID” when warranted. Committee members repeatedly discussed whether the attorney general should hold exclusive enforcement authority; Yek said she was “willing to entertain” other enforcement mechanisms as work on the bills continues.
Supporters told the committee they want to give parents tools to manage accounts and to curb what Yek described as the incentives that keep children scrolling. During debate, members raised constitutional and practical concerns about applying state law to platforms based outside Oklahoma and about implementation challenges for verification systems.
All three bills passed the committee on unanimous votes. The committee recorded that the measures will move forward for further consideration.
The committee did not adopt a timetable for implementation; sponsors said details such as verification methods and enforcement structure remain subject to further drafting and negotiation.
Notes on procedure: amendments, questions and a brief debate occurred on each bill during the hearing. Committee members who spoke included authors and several senators who asked technical and constitutional questions.
