Cybersecurity Policy Report, Social Media Safety Bill Advances in Idaho, (Mar 23, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:NetChoice, LLC
The Idaho state Senate voted 21-14 to pass the Stop Harms from Addictive Social Media Act, which would require large social media platforms in the state to implement age estimation, obtain parental consent for child users, and restrict addictive features and targeted ads for children.
The bill will be sent to Gov. Brad Little (R.) for his signature.
HB 542 would require large platforms to estimate the age of Idaho account holders using reasonable means and to treat users as children unless they can determine with high confidence that the user is 16 or older. For children, the bill would require social media platforms to obtain verifiable parental consent before creating or maintaining accounts, and all privacy settings would have to default to the most private levels. Parents would be given options to monitor and limit their child’s usage, including setting time limits and access windows.
The legislation further would prohibit the use of addictive interface features and profile-based paid commercial advertising to children. Platforms would be required to terminate accounts for minors upon request from the account holder or parent within specified timeframes and provide clear means for parents to request such termination. If an account is to be terminated due to lack of parental consent, the platform would have to notify the user and allow 30 days to dispute the age classification or provide consent, according to the bill.
The bill has an effective date of July 1.
In recent testimony, NetChoice LLC said the bill would “force platforms to collect and analyze sensitive identity data from both minors and adults to comply with its age-estimation and parental consent mandates, creating significant privacy and security risks. The bill also imposes unconstitutional barriers to accessing and distributing lawful online speech by conditioning participation in social media on age verification and parental approval. Finally, by restricting personalized feeds and enabling broad private lawsuits, the legislation interferes with platforms’ editorial discretion and exposes them to costly, open-ended litigation.”
The bill (H.B. 542) is sponsored by Rep. Brent Crane (R.).
News: StateLegislation DataPrivacy