MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont wants to hear from residents as it develops rules to keep kids safer online, with 77% of high school students checking social media multiple times a day, according to state data released this summer.
Last session, the Legislature passed Act 63, the so-called Kids Code, requiring businesses, including social media companies, to add protections for users under 18.
Those protections include preventing the use or sale of user data, requiring age verification for users, and stopping potentially addictive features like endless scroll.
“The concern is with certain design practices that may encourage a young person to continue using that service in ways that become difficult to control or that interfere with their ability to make a choice about when to stop,” Vt. Assistant Attorney General Sarah Jameson said.
The state says if all goes well, the final rules will be adopted by December, before the law goes into effect in January 2027.
The attorney general’s office hosted a forum on Wednesday to hear from Vermonters, and there are two more in September. The next one is Monday, Sept. 21, in White River Junction, followed by another on Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Shelburne.
Residents can also submit comments online ahead of time.
The forums come just weeks after Vermont secured a $92.7 million settlement with Meta over allegations that the company designed Instagram to be addictive.
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