Senate committee hears bill to curb social‑media features for minors as supporters cite mental‑health harms, industry raises legal and practical concerns

The Senate Business, Financial Services and Trade Committee held a public hearing Feb. 13 on Senate Bill 5708, a measure that would require online services likely to be accessed by minors to estimate user age with reasonable certainty, limit collection and profiling of minors’ data, restrict targeted notifications and prohibit ‘‘addictive feeds’’ to known minors until 2026 and more broadly beginning in 2026.

The bill’s sponsor, State Senator Noelle Frame, told the committee the measure is intended to protect children’s mental health and expand prevention alongside behavioral‑health services. "This bill will significantly improve and protect the mental health of Washington's kids," Frame said during her remarks to the committee.

Committee staff said the bill mirrors provisions in recently enacted California laws and in federal proposals such as the Children and Teens Online Protection Act and the Kids Online Safety Act, and that litigation over the California statutes in the federal courts — including in the Ninth Circuit — could affect how the Washington measure is applied. Adam Eitman of the Office of the Attorney General described the bill’s core requirements: reasonable age estimation or applying minors’ privacy safeguards to all users, limits on collection and use of precise location and…