> I guess for me it depends on what the law considers "social media".

It's a bill written by the Florida House of Representatives, so there's a definition there. Mind you, it's the Florida House, which has put out some extremely bad laws in its current session -- from "Parental Rights in Education" to the Disney speech retaliation. But given that this is a less ostensibly partisan issue, there are reasons for hope.

The definition seems narrowly tailored. I think that part (d)1d is a questionable choice, since most social media platforms will probably argue that they are not really "designed" to be addictive (for various definitions of "designed" and "addictive"). It appears that specific exemptions were made for YouTube, Craigslist and LinkedIn (without mentioning those companies by name), and algorithmic content selection is part of the definition. This is one of the better versions of this law I could imagine being written by a state legislature, though it isn't without its faults. It's nice to see my home state in the news for something good for once.

I agree that YouTube is a particularly difficult case. But part of the problem comes from using it as a digital pacifier, rather than peer pressure. There's no particular reason why the technology market should produce a free stream of child-appropriate videos. Ad-supported media has its ups and downs, but when the targets of those ads are young children, it's much harder to defend. And parents have more control over the behavior of their 4-year-olds than their 14-year-olds.

Here's the definition:

>(d) "Social media platform:"

>1. Means an online forum, website, or application offered39
by an entity that does all of the following:

>a. Allows the social media platform to track the activity
of the account holder.

>b. Allows an account holder to upload content or view the
content or activity of other account holders.

>c. Allows an account holder to interact with or track
other account holders.

>d. Utilizes addictive, harmful, or deceptive design
features, or any other feature that is designed to cause an
account holder to have an excessive or compulsive need to use or
engage with the social media platform.

>e. Allows the utilization of information derived from the
social media platform's tracking of the activity of an account
holder to control or target at least part of the content offered
to the account holder.

>2. Does not include an online service, website, or
application where the predominant or exclusive function is:

>a. Electronic mail.

>b. Direct messaging consisting of text, photos, or videos
that are sent between devices by electronic means whe re messages
are shared between the sender and the recipient only, visible to
the sender and the recipient, and are not posted publicly.

>c. A streaming service that provides only licensed media
in a continuous flow from the service, website, or application
to the end user and does not obtain a license to the media from
a user or account holder by agreement to its terms of service.

>d. News, sports, entertainment, or other content that is
preselected by the provider and not user generated, and any
chat, comment, or interactive functionality that is provided
incidental to, directly related to, or dependent upon provision
of the content.

>e. Online shopping or e-commerce, if the interaction with
other users or account holders is generally limited to the
ability to upload a post and comment on reviews or display lists
or collections of goods for sale or wish lists, or other
functions that are focused on online shopping or e-commerce rather than interaction between users or account holders.

> f. Interactive gaming, virtual gaming, or an online
service, that allows the creation and uploading of content for
the purpose of interactive gaming, edutainment, or associated
entertainment, and the communication related to that content.

> g. Photo editing that has an associated photo hosting
service, if the interaction with other users or account holders
is generally limited to liking or commenting.

> h. A professional creative network for showcasing and
discovering artistic content, if the content is required to be
non-pornographic.

> i. Single-purpose community groups for public safety if
the interaction with other users or account holders is generally
limited to that single purpose and the community group has
guidelines or policies against illegal content.

> j. To provide career development opportunities, including
professional networking, job skills, learning certifications,
and job posting and application services.

> k. Business to business software.

> l. A teleconferencing or videoconferencing service that
allows reception and transmission of audio and video signals for
real time communication.

> m. Shared document collaboration.

> n. Cloud computing services, which may include cloud o. To provide access to or interacting with data
visualization platforms, libraries, or hubs.

> p. To permit comments on a digital news website, if the
news content is posted only by the provider of the digital news
website.

> q. To provide or obtain technical support for a platform,
product, or service.

> r. Academic, scholarly, or genealogical research where the
majority of the content that is posted or created is posted or
created by the provider of the online service, website, or
application and the ability to chat, comment, or interact with
other users is directly related to the provider's content.

> s. A classified ad service that only permits the sale of
goods and prohibits the solicitation of personal services or
that is used by and under the direction of an educational
entity, including:

> (I) A learning management system;

> (II) A student engagement program; and

> (III) A subject or skill-specific program.