Senate committee hears testimony on S.69 to set default online protections for minors

Montpelier — The Vermont Senate Committee on Institutions heard testimony Feb. 19 on S.69, legislation that would require online platforms to adopt age‑appropriate design and privacy protections for minors.

Supporters told the committee the bill would protect children by setting privacy and safety defaults rather than relying on parents to change multiple app settings. "Technology can certainly provide benefits to young people, but the current business incentives and design practices of some tech companies...are leading them to cause vast harm to children and adolescents," researcher Ravi Iyer said during the hearing. He added that design changes can reduce harms such as bullying, exposure to explicit content and unwanted contact.

The bill’s sponsors and witnesses said S.69 would impose a minimum duty of care on covered businesses when they collect minors’ personal information or design features that affect minors’ experiences online. Marissa Shea, a consultant for Reset Tech, described the legislation as consumer protection: "At its core, this bill is simple consumer protection," she said, and noted it would require default privacy settings, limit data collection to what is necessary to provide the service, and bar certain practices such as overnight notifications for minors.

Why it matters: Witnesses said platform design choices — autoplay, infinite scroll, engagement gamification and algorithmic recommendation — magnify risks for youth and are often optimized for attention rather than well‑being. Iyer summarized three broad categories of harms the bill targets: unwanted or excessive use driven by product mechanics; algorithmically recommended content that youth did not seek; and unwanted contact, including unsolicited messages from strangers.

Evidence and examples offered to the committee included academic and industry studies cited by witnesses: a survey that found about 50 percent of Minnesota college students reported problems with excessive internet use; a Common Sense Media finding that more than 70 percent of children reported feeling manipulated by products to spend more time on them; and a meta‑analysis in which about 21 percent of 13‑ to 15‑year‑olds reported encountering content that made them feel worse about their lives in a seven‑day period and about 19 percent reported seeing unwanted explicit content in the same span. Shea also cited a Harvard estimate that Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube together generated about $11,000,000,000 in ad revenue from U.S. users younger than 18 in 2022, with roughly $2,100,000,000 of that tied to targeted ads to users under age 12.

Educators and parents spoke on the bill’s local impact. Colin Robinson, local director of Vermont NEA, said teachers and school staff are seeing the effects in classrooms: "The number 1 issue that they identified their students are facing right now is mental health," he said, adding that 65 percent of surveyed members labeled student mental health a very serious issue and 94 percent labeled it somewhat or very serious. An executive director from the Upper Valley Aquatic Center described being uncomfortable with broad media‑use release forms parents sign for youth activities and urged clearer limits on use of children’s images and data.

Witnesses described measures already taken in other jurisdictions and by platforms. Shea noted that international and state efforts have prompted product changes abroad — for example, some platforms have limited or turned off certain notifications for teens and changed default privacy settings. She said S.69 is designed to focus on design and data practices rather than content moderation, and that the bill includes limits on how age‑verification data may be used and requires deletion after verification.

Questions from senators addressed enforceability, parental roles and litigation risk. Senator Rob Pankett asked how harms can be detected when they may be invisible to parents; witnesses said platforms can and sometimes do build features to reduce harm, but parents alone cannot be expected to manage settings across many apps. Committee members and witnesses acknowledged potential legal challenges; Shea said Vermont drafters had tailored the bill to avoid aspects that drew litigation elsewhere and that the bill explicitly preserves minors’ ability to search for specific information.

The committee took no vote at the hearing. Witnesses said they will submit written testimony and follow‑up material. The committee scheduled continuation of the discussion for the following day at 1 p.m.