The shameful thing about this act is that it has a few good ideas, they're just riding along with a bunch of truly abhorrent ones. If they just axed the entire censorship angle and age verification requirement, and kept the requirement of opt-in (via self-declaration of the user as a minor/guardian account pair) tools for parents and extended the tools available to minors to everybody, I wouldn't even be opposed to the bill.
Summary:
- Establishes a duty of care for covered platforms (basically any internet connected platform (social media, videogames, etc) that isn't a common carrier, an email service, a private messaging service disconnected from any broader platform, VOIP service, VPN, or education related.
- Covered platforms must take reasonable measures to mitigate harms to minors, with a list of specific harms being things like mental illness, addiction, physical violence, bullying, narcotics, and predatory or deceptive marketing tactics. Platforms do not need to hide such content if the minor is specifically searching for/requesting such content, or if the content is providing resources for the prevention of said harms.
-Covered platforms must provide certain safeguards to minors on their platform, to be used at the minor's (or guardian's) discretion. These include blocking, basic privacy settings, opting out of personalized recommendation systems, while still allowing the display of content based on a chronological format or limit types or categories of recommendations from such systems, hiding geolocation, and deleting the account and all associated data.
-The default settings for minors must be the most protective.
-Covered Platforms need to provide parental tools, including the ability to change privacy settings, restrict purchases, view metrics of usage, and restrict the amount of time the minor uses on the platform.
-Covered platforms need a system to receive reports about minor harming on their platform, and must "substantively respond" to such reports withing either 10 or 21 days depending on whether the service has more or less than 10,000,000 monthly active users
-Covered platforms are liable for advertising illegal stuff to minors (including stuff that's only illegal for minors to purchase, like alcohol and tobacco).