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Senate enacts content-neutral social-media protections for minors using age-estimation methods
Summary
House File 4138 passed unanimously to require parental consent for younger users, restrict addictive features by default, and mandate age‑estimation technology for large platforms; sponsors framed it as a content‑neutral consumer protection for children.
The Minnesota Senate passed House File 4138 on May 15, 2026, adopting a content-neutral consumer-protection bill aimed at reducing harms from social-media products for minors.
Sen. Maye Quade, lead sponsor, described the bill and the A1 amendment as requiring parental consent for accounts of minors (definitions keyed to age thresholds), defaulting child accounts to the highest privacy settings, and restricting product features identified as addictive — such as autoplay videos, push notifications, and reward metrics tied to engagement. The measure also uses existing commercial age-estimation technologies so platforms can identify and protect younger account holders.
An A4 amendment that would have prohibited access to AI chatbots for children 15 and under was debated and later withdrawn by the sponsor. Floor debate included bipartisan support, with senators citing studies, state attorneys-general actions and concerns about youth mental health. The final roll call was 66 yeas and 0 nays; the bill passed as amended.
Implementation will rely on regulatory and platform-level compliance; sponsors said the bill is content neutral and focused on features rather than specific speech or viewpoints.
