Children’s Advocacy Institute Co-Sponsors Landmark Social Media Liability Bill

SAN DIEGO (March 15, 2022) - University of San Diego (USD) School of Law Children’s Advocacy Institute (CAI) has co-sponsored AB 2408 (Cunningham and Wicks), entitled the Social Media Platform Duty to Children Act. The bill was introduced today by Assemblymembers Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo) and Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) to impose a clear duty on social media platforms not to use techniques that addict children and to make platforms liable for penalties and damages when social media addiction harms children, especially adolescent girls. The bi-partisan, first-in-the-nation state legislation will work to discourage, through financial accountability, social media companies from manipulating their inventions to be addictive and harmful to kids.

"We shouldn't have to put in law that some of the most profitable corporations in the world have a duty to be kind to children, have a duty not to make addicts of children. But here we are. We have to," said Ed Howard, Senior Counsel at CAI.

The bill will be heard in the Assembly Judiciary Committee this spring. To learn more about the bill, and to hear how social media is addictive directly from children, click here.

In the News:

Politico: Instagram, TikTok could get sued for addicting kids under California proposal (March 15, 2022)

The Wall Street Journal: California Bill Aims to Make Tech Firms Liable for Social-Media Addiction in Children [subscription may be required]

Los Angeles Times: California bill would let parents sue social media companies for addicting kids [subscription may be required]

MarketWatch: California bill would hold tech companies liable for kids’ social-media addiction

Scary Mommy: California Lawmakers Want To Hold Social Media Platforms Accountable For Addicting Kids

India Times: US Proposes Law To Sue Instagram, TikTok For Getting Kids Addicted To Social Media

About the Children’s Advocacy Institute

The Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI), founded at the nonprofit University of San Diego School of Law in 1989, is one of the nation's premiere academic, research, and advocacy organizations working to improve the lives of children and youth, with special emphasis on improving the child protection and foster care systems and enhancing resources that are available to youth aging out of foster care.

In its academic component, CAI trains law students and attorneys to be effective child advocates throughout their legal careers. Its Child Advocacy Clinic gives USD Law students three distinct clinical opportunities to advocate on behalf of children and youth, and its Dependency Counsel Training Program provides comprehensive training to licensed attorneys engaged in or contemplating Dependency Court practice.

CAI's research and advocacy component, conducted through its offices in San Diego, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C., seeks to leverage change for children and youth through impact litigation, regulatory and legislative advocacy, and public education. Active primarily at the federal and state levels, CAI's efforts are multi-faceted—comprehensively and successfully embracing all tools of public interest advocacy to improve the lives of children and youth. To support CAI’s work, please visit law.sandiego.edu/caigift.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world.  The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 84 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates.  The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 30th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 28th nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.