Massachusetts House passes bill to ban kids from social media. Tech expert skeptical about practicality.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives voted 129-25 Wednesday night to pass legislation that would ban all kids under age 14 from using social media in the state.
The ban would impact all kids under age 14. Kids ages 14 and 15 would need parental consent to use social media.
The bill also calls for a statewide ban on cellphones in schools, which was passed by the Senate last summer.
The Attorney General's office is tasked with implementing the social media ban starting October 1, 2026. When asked for comment about the plan to implement the ban, the AG's office did not respond to WBZ.
Tech expert says ban would be challenging
Tech experts say implementing such a sweeping ban will be logistically challenging.
"From a technology standpoint, it is very, very complex," said Peter Tran, a cybersecurity and technology expert. "First, you have to define what constitutes social media. So, that in and of itself is difficult, because the criteria is very broad. Second is to determine age verification. Right now, you could sign up for an account, and you can, you know, forge your birthdate, and have a separate email address, there are a number of workarounds right now."
The bill calls for social media companies to pay a $5,000 fine for each violation – meaning, for each social media account found to be out of compliance. WBZ asked Meta, Tiktok, Snap, and X for comment but received no reply.
In addition to the challenge of implementing strict age verification systems, the bill could require enhanced technology to apply the ban only in Massachusetts.
Potential privacy concerns
Tran said doing so would open a "Pandora's box" for privacy concerns.
"If you're going to try to enforce Massachusetts state boundaries you have to enforce that location services be turned on, if that's the case," Tran said. "And so that brings a lot of debate from a security and data privacy standpoint, especially for minors."
The biggest challenge, Tran says, is the October 1 deadline. "That's very aspirational," he said.
When asked whether they've discussed the complexity of a ban with the Attorney General, House Speaker Ron Mariano said, "The Attorney General is well aware of the issues surrounding the threat to children's health and wellbeing, so I don't think there will be a real learning curve for her to get up to speed."
The bill, which is an amended version of the Senate's school cellphone ban, still needs to be passed by the Senate and signed by Governor Healey. Lawmakers told WBZ that the governor has been working on her own plans to limit kids' social media access, and that they've been in touch with her about her plans.
