Massachusetts Senate Passes Social Media Addiction Bill for Minors, 38-2

BOSTON — July 9, 2026 — Massachusetts Senate passes children's social media protection bill 38-2. The Senate voted Wednesday to pass Senate Bill 3164, "An Act Protecting Children from Addictive Social Media Feeds," requiring platforms to disable algorithmic feeds, autoplay video, and infinite scroll by default for users who cannot verify they are adults. Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Stone Creem, the bill's lead sponsor, said it would "free Massachusetts teenagers from the addictive grasp of big tech" while preserving First Amendment rights by allowing anyone to bypass age verification and still view a platform's public content. The only sustained floor opposition came from Minority Leader Bruce E. Tarr, who supported the bill but urged caution, and Senator Peter J. Durant, who voted no and argued the legislation displaces parental authority rather than strengthening it. Senator John C. Velis, citing conversations with students and his own experience with addiction, backed the measure as giving minors a genuine moment of cognitive pause. Amendments adopted in floor action include a tighter push-notification curfew of 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., stricter age-verification privacy requirements, a prohibition on dark-pattern design steering users away from protections, and a sweeping algorithm accountability amendment requiring platforms to report complaint data on youth harms to the Attorney General.