1 of 1
SENATE DOCKET, NO. 654 FILED ON: 1/14/2025
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 335
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_________________
PRESENTED BY:
Julian Cyr
_________________
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:
The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:
An Act promoting safe technology use and distraction-free education for youth.
_______________
PETITION OF:
NAME:DISTRICT/ADDRESS :Julian CyrCape and IslandsAndrea Joy CampbellAttorney GeneralNick CollinsFirst Suffolk1/28/2025Barry R. FinegoldSecond Essex and Middlesex2/13/2025 1 of 10
SENATE DOCKET, NO. 654 FILED ON: 1/14/2025
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 335
By Mr. Cyr, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 335) of Julian Cyr, Andrea Joy
Campbell, Attorney General , Nick Collins and Barry R. Finegold for legislation to promote safe
technology use and distraction-free education for youth. Education.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_______________
In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court
(2025-2026)
_______________
An Act promoting safe technology use and distraction-free education for youth.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:
1 SECTION 1. Chapter 71 of the General Laws, as amended by section 2 of chapter 118 of
2the acts of 2024, is hereby further amended by adding the following 2 sections:-
3 Section 101. Each public school shall have a policy regarding the use of personal
4electronic devices on school grounds and during school-sponsored activities to reduce
5distractions, maintain environments focused on learning and protect the privacy and safety of
6students and staff. Each public school shall notify the parents or guardians of all students
7attending the school of the policy. The policy shall include, but not be limited to, a prohibition on
8physical access to a personal electronic device by students during the school day as defined by
9the board of elementary and secondary education pursuant to section 1G of chapter 69 unless: (i)
10authorized by a school administrator to address the needs of an individual student; (ii) when used
11in accordance with an individualized education program or an education plan implemented
12pursuant to section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq.; or (iii) during 2 of 10
13an emergency. For the purposes of this section, a “personal electronic device” shall mean a smart
14phone, mobile phone, tablet, computer, smartwatch or other electronic device not owned or
15provided to a student by a public school that is capable of communication through the internet or
16a wireless network.
17 The policy and any standards and rules enforcing the policy shall be prescribed by the
18school committee in conjunction with the superintendent or the board of trustees of a
19commonwealth charter school.
20 The department of elementary and secondary education shall, in consultation with the
21attorney general’s office and the department of public health, provide guidance and
22recommendations to assist schools with developing and implementing effective policies
23regarding the use of personal electronic devices on school grounds and during school-sponsored
24activities consistent with this section and shall make such guidance and recommendations
25publicly available on the department's website. Guidance and recommendations may be reviewed
26and regularly updated to reflect applicable research and best practices.
27 Each school district and charter school shall file its school personal electronic device use
28policy with the department of elementary and secondary education in a manner and form
29prescribed by the department.
30 Section 102. Each public school shall have a policy regarding the education of its
31students about the social, emotional and physical risks and harms of social media use. The school
32shall notify the parents or guardians of all students attending the school of the policy and shall
33post the policy on the school's website. The policy, and any standards and rules enforcing the 3 of 10
34policy, shall be prescribed by the school committee in conjunction with the superintendent or the
35board of trustees of a charter school.
36 The department of elementary and secondary education, in consultation with the attorney
37general’s office and the department of public health, shall provide guidance and
38recommendations to assist schools with developing and implementing effective social media use
39education policies and shall make such guidance and recommendations publicly available on the
40department's website. Guidance and recommendations may include, but shall not be limited to,
41curriculum resources, guidance on developing community norms regarding cell phone and social
42media use, guidance for educating parents or guardians on managing their child’s social media
43use and recognizing warning signs of the harmful effects of social media use and other available
44resources. Guidance and recommendations may be reviewed and regularly updated to reflect
45applicable research and best practices.
46 Each school district and charter school shall file its social media use education policy
47with the department of elementary and secondary education in a manner and form prescribed by
48the department.
49 SECTION 2. The General Laws are hereby amended by inserting after chapter 93L the
50following chapter:-
51 CHAPTER 93M
52 ONLINE PROTECTION
53 Section 1. As used in this chapter, the following words shall, unless the context clearly
54requires otherwise, have the following meanings: 4 of 10
55 “Account”, a unique profile for a user of a social media company.
56 “Algorithmic ranking system”, means a computational process, including a process
57derived from algorithmic decision making, machine learning, statistical analysis or other data
58processing or artificial intelligence techniques, used to determine the selection, order, relative
59prioritization or relative prominence of content from a set of information that is provided to a
60user on a social media platform, including search results ranking, content recommendations,
61content display or any other automated content recommendation method.
62 “Content”, text, image or video created, shared or viewed through a social media
63platform.
64 “Connected account”, an account directly connected to another account by affirmative
65request or affirmative confirmation by the users of both accounts.
66 “Social media feed”, the presentation of content to users of a social media platform that
67has been recommended, selected or prioritized for presentation based on an algorithmic ranking
68system or other information associated with the user’s account.
69 “Social media platform”, a public website, online service, online application or mobile
70application that displays content primarily generated by users and allows users to create, share
71and view user-generated content with other users. “Social media platform” shall not include
72email, cloud storage, SMS, MMS, RCS, or similar text messaging telecommunications services
73or document viewing, sharing or collaboration services.
74 “Minor”, an individual who is under 18 years of age.
75 “User”, an individual who accesses or uses a social media platform through an account. 5 of 10
76 “Parent”, a parent or legal guardian.
77 Section 2. (a) A social media platform shall implement an age assurance or verification
78system to determine whether a user on the social media platform meets age requirements to use
79the platform under applicable law. The age assurance system shall consist of the best technology
80available in the age assurance and verification industry with measures reasonably calculated to
81accurately identify a current or prospective user’s age and determine the proper level of access to
82the social media platform’s features pursuant to this chapter with 99 per cent accuracy.
83 (b) A social media platform shall implement a review process to allow users to appeal the
84social media platform’s age designation by submitting documentary evidence over the internet to
85establish that the user is not a minor and shall review the documentary evidence submitted and
86make a determination on the appeal within 3 days.
87 (c) Any data or information gathered by the social media platform for use in the age
88assurance system, or during any appeal of the age assurance system’s determination, shall be
89segregated by the social media platform and remain confidential. The data and information
90gathered for use in the age assurance system, or during any appeal of the system’s determination,
91shall not be used for any other purpose by the social media platform.
92 Section 3. (a) Upon determination that an account belongs to a minor user, a social media
93platform shall set the default settings of the minor user to ensure a heightened level of privacy
94and limit the use of features that prolong minor engagement with the social media platform. The
95default settings shall include, but not be limited to:
96 (i)restricting the visibility of the minor user’s account to only connected accounts; 6 of 10
97 (ii)limiting the minor user to only sharing content with connected accounts;
98 (iii)limiting the minor user to only direct messaging with connected accounts;
99 (iv)enabling a social media feed that only presents content chronologically;
100 (v)disabling autoplay functions that continuously present content to a user;
101 (vi)disabling continuous scrolling or pagination functions that present continuous
102content as the user continues to scroll a social media feed;
103 (vii)disabling notifications to the minor user concerning a social media feed between
104the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.;
105 (viii)restricting a minor user from accessing the social media platform between the
106hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.;
107 (ix)restricting a minor user from accessing the social media platform for more than 1
108½ cumulative hours of use in any 24 hour period;
109 (x)restricting a minor user from accessing the social media platform for 10 minutes
110after 20 minutes of continuous use.
111 (b) The default settings of a minor user of a social media platform who is 15 years old or
112younger provided in clauses (ix) and (x) of subsection (a) may be changed with parental consent
113pursuant to section 5; provided, however, the parent may not increase access pursuant to clause
114(ix) to more than 2 hours in any 24 hour period and the parent may not increase continuous use
115pursuant to clause (x) to more than 30 minutes before 10 minutes of inaccessibility. 7 of 10
116 (c) The default settings of a minor user of a social media platform provided in clauses (ix)
117and (x) of subsection (a) may be changed by a minor user who is 16 or 17 years old; provided,
118however, the minor user may not increase access pursuant to clause (ix) to more than 2 hours in
119any 24 hour period and the minor user may not increase continuous use pursuant to clause (x) to
120more than 30 minutes before 10 minutes of inaccessibility.
121 (d) A social media platform shall restrict from public visibility a minor user’s account
122within 1 hour of receiving a request for a restriction by a parent of a minor user 15 years old or
123younger or by a minor user and shall delete a minor user’s account within 3 days of receiving a
124request for a deletion by a parent of a minor user 15 years old or younger or by a minor user.
125Any restriction or deletion pursuant to this subsection shall include all information and material
126made publicly available by the minor user on the social media platform. Nothing in this
127subsection shall require a social media platform to contravene any federal or state law or
128regulation or require a social media platform to delete information subject to a law enforcement
129investigation.
130 (e) A social media platform shall provide a conspicuous tool with each item of content to
131allow a minor user the ability to flag or otherwise indicate that the minor user found the content
132to be unwanted or harmful.
133 (f) A social media platform shall present a warning to minor users on the negative effects
134of social media use on social, emotional and physical health. The warning shall be presented to a
135minor user upon account activation and every 30 days thereafter and shall require the minor user
136to acknowledge the warning before proceeding to use the social media platform. 8 of 10
137 Section 4. (a) A social media platform shall publicly and conspicuously post the
138following information on the social media platform's website:
139 (i) data and information on how the social media platform tracks platform use by minor
140users including, but not limited to:
141 (1) any tracking by the social media platform on the number of times for each mode of
142interaction that a minor user interacts with other accounts in an hour, day, week and month; and
143 (2) whether and how the social media platform engages in any limitations in the ability of
144minor users to engage in account interactions;
145 (ii) data and information on whether and how the social media platform:
146 (1) assesses the relevance of content on the platform to the preferences of a minor user;
147and
148 (2) assesses minor users' expressed preferences regarding content;
149 (iii) statistics on the platform's use by minor users for each distinct type of account
150interaction or engagement, including but not limited to:
151 (1) sending invitations or messages to other platform users;
152 (2) commenting on content;
153 (3) resharing content;
154 (4) liking content;
155 (5) voting for content; 9 of 10
156 (6) reacting to content;
157 (7) posting new minor user-generated content;
158 (8) disseminating minor user-generated content to other platform users; and
159 (9) time spent on the platform by minor users;
160 (iv) data and information on when and how often notifications are sent to a minor user
161and how the social media platform determines when to send a notification to a minor user; and
162 (v) a description of all product experiments that have been conducted on 1,000 or more
163minor users of the social media platform, including a description of the experimental conditions
164and the results of the product experiment for all experimental conditions on users' viewing or
165engaging with content that:
166 (i) minor users indicate to be of high or low quality;
167 (ii) minor users indicate complies or does not comply with the users' expressed
168preferences;
169 (iii) minor users indicate is harmful or unwanted; or
170 (iv) minor users indicate violates platform policies.
171 (b) Every 7 days the social media platform shall survey minor users to determine
172whether, and to what extent, the minor user had experienced unwanted or harmful activity on the
173social media platform. The social media platform shall collect the surveys required pursuant to
174this subsection and any data concerning the flagging of unwanted or harmful content pursuant to
175subsection (e) of section 3 and make the surveys and data publicly available. 10 of 10
176 Section 5. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as requiring a social media platform
177to provide a parent any additional or special access to or control over the data or accounts of their
178minor user child; provided, however, the social media platform may provide a parent access to
179the account of a minor user child for the purposes of obtaining consent pursuant to section 3.
180 Section 6. A violation by a social media platform of the provisions of this chapter shall be
181deemed an unfair or deceptive act or practice in trade or commerce under the provisions of
182chapter 93A. A violation of section 2 or section 3 shall be punished by a civil fine of not more
183than $5,000 per violation. Each user affected by a violation of section 2 or section 3 shall be
184considered a separate violation under this section. A violation of section 4 shall be punished by a
185civil fine of not more than $1 million. Each day that a violation of section 4 occurs shall be
186considered a separate violation under this section.