The tricky business of regulating kids online

A key test in Utah. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi, it’s Drake here in New York. Utah is cracking down on underage social media activity. But first... Today’s must-reads: - Congress [grills]( TikTok’s CEO - Hackers [breach]( UK pension fund - China [opposes]( TikTok sale Utah attempts to regulate teen use of social media Spencer Cox, Utah’s Republican governor, signed two measures on Thursday meant to protect kids from the pernicious effects of social media. Starting a year from now, services like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube will be required to obtain parental consent for any Utahns under the age of 18 to be on the platforms. The laws also prohibit management “from using a design or feature that causes a minor to have an addiction to the company’s social media platform.” Minors would be prevented, as Bloomberg Law [has reported](bbg://news/stories/RRZWAFDWRGG0), from using social media “during certain overnight hours without a parent changing the account setting.” Companies failing to enforce the rules could incur a fine of $2,500 per individual account or violation. The two bills are the first such efforts to become state law, but there are several others working their way through legislatures. And such bills have ties to both parties. In California, Democratic lawmakers have proposed their own version. Tech companies, unsurprisingly, aren’t thrilled about the prospect of regulation — or losing access to some of their most rabid consumers. But the new measures have other critics too: among them, privacy advocates who aren’t fans of much of what Big Tech does. Their reservations stem from the fact that extending special protections to certain subsets of the online population is a form of targeting, with all the concerns that come with it. Truly verifying someone’s age, for example — and verifying whether they’re in Utah — means demanding that they provide government-issued ID of some sort, then attaching that information to a person’s online profile. Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc. and other social media giants have long gathered reams of information about users — that’s their business model — but it tends to be more behavioral data (what do you buy, what ads do you respond to), and more inferential (what other stuff someone who acts like you might want to buy). What they don’t do is keep everyone’s driver’s license on file. “In this case, there is a twisted irony in the law’s requirement that everyone upload more information,” said Jason Kelley, acting activism director (“my boss just left”) at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Once that happens, it’s anyone’s guess how that information is protected, where it goes, potentially who it’s shared with — intentionally or accidentally due to a data breach.” Kelley prefers the status quo, problematic as it is, to regulation like Utah’s. It shows the bind we seem to have gotten ourselves into. Laws like these, born of a deep suspicion of tech companies, would hand them even more sensitive data. It’s hard to trust hormone-crazed teenagers to act responsibility on the internet, but based on recent history, it’s not smart to trust big tech companies to do so either. —[Drake Bennett](mailto:dbennett35@bloomberg.net) The big story Apple plans to spend $1 billion a year to produce movies that will be shown in theaters, [an ambitious effort to boost its name in Hollywood]( and attract more subscribers to its streaming service. Get fully charged Snap is launching its first product line aimed at business customers, [allowing retailers to try on clothes virtually on Snapchat](. Meta said the idea that streaming services should help pay for internet network upgrades to run the metaverse is “nonsense” [in the company’s first public comments on the issue](. India’s government has begun offering ride hailing at zero commission through an open commerce network, [a potential challenge to established ride hailers like Uber and Ola](. US Representative Jim Himes joins Bloomberg TV’s Caroline Hyde to talk [about the testimony of TikTok’s CEO before Congress](. More from Bloomberg Listen: [Foundering: The John McAfee Story]( is a six-part podcast series retracing the life, the myths and the self-destruction of a Silicon Valley icon. Subscribe for free on [Apple](, [Spotify]( or wherever you get your podcasts. Get Bloomberg Tech weeklies in your inbox: - [Cyber Bulletin]( for coverage of the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage - [Game On]( for reporting on the video game business - [Power On]( for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more - [Screentime]( for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley - [Soundbite]( for reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. 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