California ban on addictive social media fails

A proposal to let parents sue over addictive social media features failed in the California legislature this week. The bill, AB 2408, failed to pass out of committee for a full state Senate vote. It at least temporarily ends a controversial push to increase liability for social media in the state — an increasingly common practice among legislators.

AB 2408, or the Social Media Platform Duty to Children Act, was one of numerous state-level social media proposals. It would have authorized civil penalties against social networks whose designs caused a “child user ... to become addicted to the platform,” either by design or in a way the operators should have known was harmful. It would not have applied to social networks that generate less...

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