California bishops push for social media regulation as Meta pays billions after youth safety lawsuit

The California Catholic Conference is calling on residents to urge legislators to pass a bill restricting “addictive features” on social media for children under 16 in the same week that Meta agreed to pay billions of dollars and add safety limits to settle claims that Facebook and Instagram have fueled addictive and harmful use among youth.

The proposed bill, AB 1709 , is scheduled for its third reading in the state Senate on Aug. 28. The amended measure originally would have prohibited “anyone under the age of 16 from having a social media account,” as the conference’s action alert still asserted as of Aug. 28.

However, the bill was amended over the summer to simply restrict “addictive features” for youth under 16.

The Catholic conference wrote in its alert that studies “repeatedly show that social media is damaging to young kids.” The bishops said mental illness and self-harm have “skyrocketed” among youth since 2007, the year the iPhone was first released.

“ Young people self-report feeling addicted, experiencing damaging messages to their body image and self-esteem from the comparisons and endless scrolling, receiving unwanted contact by strangers, and exposure to…