Meta urges Idaho Gov. Little to veto a bill seeking to protect children online

Angela Palermo, The Idaho Statesman on Apr 2, 2026

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BOISE, Idaho — Meta is urging Idaho Gov. Brad Little to veto legislation that it says would fail to protect children on the internet.

The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp said in a letter to Little on Tuesday that House Bill 542, also called the “Stop Harms from Addictive Social Media Act,” would not accomplish the Idaho Legislature’s goal of reducing childhood social media dependency.

The bill passed both chambers and was sent to Little’s desk on Friday.

Dan Sachs, vice president of state and local policy at Meta, wrote in the letter that the legislation is unfair. The bill only applies to social media platforms with $1 billion or more in annual advertising revenue, a pool that includes other social media giants such as YouTube and TikTok but may not capture other popular platforms like Discord, which is widely used by gamers.

“All online platforms should be held to the same standard,” Sachs said. “Under this bill, they are not.”

The legislation would require social media platforms to estimate the age of users and prevent the display of a profile-based feed to accounts deemed to be children 16 years old or younger. It also mandates that the platforms ask users to provide their birth dates when signing up for an account.

One of the bill’s sponsors, GOP Rep. Jaron Crane, said during a committee hearing in February that social media should be regulated just as drugs are.

“What we’re facing today is not like anything that we’ve ever faced before,” Crane said. “It’s not the childhood that we grew up with. These kids are given something in their hand that was built on the premise and the foundation of addiction.”

Sachs said additional data about Idahoans would likely have to be collected to fulfill the requirements. The legislation says the platforms must be able to conclude whether a user is a child with at least 90% confidence.

“For teens, platforms must obtain verifiable parental consent,” Sachs said. “This will involve parents sharing their IDs, children’s information, and other sensitive data. This process must be repeated for every app a teen uses, increasing the privacy and security risks.”

Companies would be forced to preserve that data indefinitely for compliance or litigation purposes, he wrote.

He said that parents consistently report that they’d rather have a single, secure place for application downloads, such as an app store, than have to navigate approval and age verification methods across several different platforms.

“Unfortunately, this bill does not offer that,” Sachs said. “Instead, it is a one-size-fits-all government mandate. It restricts online experiences for every teen under 17 years old, regardless of the parent’s preferences.”

The bill bans addictive interface features, which it defines as infinite scrolling, meaning content that continually loads as a user scrolls down; display of a profile-based feed; push notifications, whether audible, visual or tactile; auto-play video, which doesn’t require the user to first click on the video; display of personal metrics that indicate the number of times other users have interacted with an account’s content; and the display or awards, badges or tiers that show how many hours a user has spent on the social media platform.

It also creates a so-called “private right of action,” allowing parents or children to sue over negligent, reckless or knowing violations and obtain $10,000 in statutory damages if they prevail.

The bill has an emergency clause that would make it effective July 1.

Sachs said in the letter from Meta that social media companies would likely sue over the legislation, if signed into law. He requested Little veto it.

“We believe that the best approach to online safety is to empower parents to make informed choices about their teen’s online experiences,” the letter said. “Meta has made significant investments to create safe, age-appropriate experiences for teens across our platforms, like Teen Accounts, giving parents peace of mind and more control over their teens’ online experiences.”

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