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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 6857
January Session, 2025
AN ACT CONCERNING THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S
RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING SOCIAL MEDIA AND MINORS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2026) (a) As used in this section: 1
(1) "Covered minor" means any covered user who is younger than 2
eighteen years of age; 3
(2) "Covered operator" means any operator who operates or provides 4
a platform that recommends, selects or prioritizes media items in the 5
manner set forth in subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this section; 6
(3) "Covered user" means any user of a platform in this state who is 7
not acting as the operator, or as an agent or affiliate of the operator, of 8
the platform; 9
(4) "Media item" means any text, image or video; 10
(5) "Operator" means any individual, corporation, limited liability 11
company, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, 12
association, joint stock company, unincorporated organization or other 13
legal entity that operates or provides a platform; and 14
(6) "Platform" means any Internet web site, online service, online 15 Substitute Bill No. 6857
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application or mobile application, including, but not limited to, any 16
social media platform, as defined in section 42-528 of the general 17
statutes, or any portion thereof. 18
(b) (1) No operator of a platform shall allow a covered user to access 19
any portion of the platform that, as a significant part of the services 20
offered by such portion of such platform, recommends, selects or 21
prioritizes for display, either concurrently or sequentially, media items 22
generated or shared by users of such platform if such recommendation, 23
selection or prioritization is based, in whole or in part, on any 24
information associated with the covered user or the covered user's 25
device, unless: 26
(A) (i) The operator has used commercially reasonable and 27
technically feasible methods to determine that the covered user is not a 28
covered minor; or 29
(ii) If the covered user is a covered minor, the operator has obtained 30
verifiable consent from the covered minor's parent or legal guardian to 31
recommend, select or prioritize media items for such covered minor in 32
the manner set forth in this subdivision; 33
(B) The recommendation, selection or prioritization (i) is based on 34
information that is not persistently associated with the covered user or 35
the covered user's device, and (ii) does not concern the covered user's 36
previous interactions with media items generated or shared by other 37
users of such platform; 38
(C) The recommendation, selection or prioritization is based on (i) 39
privacy or accessibility settings selected by the covered user, or (ii) 40
technical information concerning the covered user's device; 41
(D) The covered user has expressly and unambiguously requested 42
that any specific media item, media items from a specific author, creator 43
or poster to whom the covered user has subscribed or media items 44
shared by users to a specific page or group to which the covered user 45
has subscribed be displayed, blocked, prioritized or deprioritized; 46 Substitute Bill No. 6857
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(E) The recommended, selected or prioritized media item is a direct 47
and private communication; 48
(F) The media item is recommended, selected or prioritized 49
exclusively in response to a specific search inquiry made by the covered 50
user; 51
(G) The media item is recommended, selected or prioritized for 52
display exclusively because the media item (i) immediately follows any 53
other media item in a preexisting sequence, and (ii) is from the same 54
author, creator, poster or source; or 55
(H) The recommendation, selection or prioritization is necessary to 56
comply with any other provision of this section. 57
(2) (A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B) of this subdivision, a 58
covered operator that has used commercially reasonable and technically 59
feasible methods to determine a covered user's age and cannot 60
determine whether the covered user is a covered minor shall presume 61
that such covered user is not a covered minor for the purposes of this 62
subsection. 63
(B) A covered operator shall treat a covered user as a covered minor 64
if the covered operator obtains actual knowledge that the covered user 65
is a covered minor. 66
(3) (A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B) of this subdivision: 67
(i) No information that is collected for the purpose of determining a 68
covered user's age under this subsection shall be used for any other 69
purpose, and such information shall be deleted immediately after an 70
attempt is made to determine the covered user's age; and 71
(ii) No information that is collected for the purpose of obtaining 72
verifiable consent from a covered minor's parent or legal guardian shall 73
be used for any other purpose, and such information shall be deleted 74
immediately after an attempt is made to obtain such verifiable consent. 75 Substitute Bill No. 6857
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(B) Any information that is collected for any purpose set forth in 76
subparagraph (A) of this subdivision may be used or retained if such 77
use or retention is necessary to comply with any federal law or 78
regulation or any other law or regulation of this state. 79
(4) No covered operator shall withhold or degrade, or reduce the 80
quality or increase the price of, any product, service or feature due to 81
the prohibition against recommending, selecting or prioritizing media 82
items in the manner set forth in subdivision (1) of this subsection, unless 83
such withholding, degradation, reduction or increase is necessary for 84
such covered operator to comply with the provisions of this subsection. 85
(5) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit any 86
covered operator from taking any action to restrict access to, or the 87
availability of, any media item that such covered operator in good faith 88
considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, 89
harassing or otherwise objectionable, regardless of whether such media 90
item is protected under the Constitution of the state or the Constitution 91
of the United States. 92
(c) (1) No covered operator shall send any notification to a covered 93
minor concerning any recommendation, selection or prioritization 94
made in the manner set forth in subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this 95
section unless: 96
(A) Such notification is sent to the covered minor during the hours 97
between eight o'clock a.m. and nine o'clock p.m. eastern time; or 98
(B) The covered operator has obtained verifiable consent from the 99
covered minor's parent or legal guardian to send notifications to such 100
covered minor outside of the time frame set forth in subparagraph (A) 101
of this subdivision. 102
(2) Each covered operator shall: 103
(A) As a default setting for such covered operator's platform and 104
unless otherwise required by a covered minor's verified parent or legal 105 Substitute Bill No. 6857
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guardian pursuant to subparagraph (B) of this subdivision, (i) prevent 106
the covered minor from accessing or receiving any notification 107
described in subdivision (1) of this subsection outside of the time frame 108
set forth in subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) of this subsection, (ii) 109
limit the covered minor's access to any portion of such covered 110
operator's platform that recommends, selects or prioritizes media items 111
in the manner set forth in subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this section 112
to a maximum period of one hour per day, and (iii) set the covered 113
minor's platform account to a mode that exclusively allows users to 114
whom such covered minor is connected to view or respond to content 115
posted by such covered minor; and 116
(B) Establish and maintain a mechanism by which a covered minor's 117
verified parent or legal guardian may require such covered operator to 118
(i) prevent the covered minor from accessing or receiving any 119
notification described in subdivision (1) of this subsection outside of a 120
time frame specified by such parent or legal guardian, (ii) limit the 121
covered minor's access to any portion of such covered operator's 122
platform that recommends, selects or prioritizes media items in the 123
manner set forth in subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this section to a 124
maximum daily period specified by such parent or legal guardian, or 125
(iii) set the covered minor's platform account to a mode that exclusively 126
allows users to whom such covered minor is connected to view or 127
respond to content posted by such covered minor. 128
(d) Not later than March 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, each 129
covered operator shall publicly disclose, in a form and manner specified 130
by the Attorney General, the following information for the preceding 131
calendar year: 132
(1) The total number of covered users who used the covered 133
operator's platform during such year; 134
(2) The portion of the total number of covered users described in 135
subdivision (1) of this subsection for whom the covered operator 136
obtained verifiable consent from a parent or legal guardian under 137 Substitute Bill No. 6857
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subparagraph (A)(ii) of subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this section; 138
(3) The portion of the total number of covered users described in 139
subdivision (1) of this subsection for whom the default settings set forth 140
in subparagraph (A) of subdivision (2) of subsection (c) of this section 141
were enabled, and the portion of such total number of covered users for 142
whom such default settings were not enabled; and 143
(4) The average amount of time per day that covered users used the 144
covered operator's platform, broken down by user age and hour of day. 145
(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to (1) require a covered 146
operator to provide a covered minor's parent or legal guardian with 147
access to, or control over, such minor's platform account or any data 148
associated therewith, unless provision of such access or control is 149
specifically required by this section, or (2) impose liability for any 150
commercial activity or action by an operator subject to 15 USC 6501, as 151
amended from time to time, that is inconsistent with the manner in 152
which such commercial activity or action is treated under 15 USC 6502, 153
as amended from time to time. 154
(f) A violation of subsections (b) to (d), inclusive, of this section shall 155
be deemed an unfair or deceptive trade practice under subsection (a) of 156
section 42-110b of the general statutes. 157
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2026 New section
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
In Subsec. (a)(3), "such platform" was changed to "the platform" for
internal consistency; in Subsec. (b)(1)(D), "any media item" was changed
to "any specific media item", "an author" was changed to "a specific
author" and "a page" was changed to "a specific page" for clarity; in
Subsec. (d)(2), "the operator" was changed to "the covered operator" for
internal consistency; in Subsec. (d)(3), "which" was changed to "whom"
for internal consistency; and in Subsec. (f), "this section" was changed to
"subsections (b) to (d), inclusive, of this section" for accuracy. Substitute Bill No. 6857
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GL Joint Favorable Subst.