When tbh producer Isadora Saederup first heard about the California social media bill, she was surprised that no one her age seemed to be talking about it. She finds out what the teens think.
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Story Transcript:
Sound of Rosanna Pansino Elsa and Anna Cake Tutorial
REPORTER: When I was about 7 years old, every Saturday morning after waking up I would take my tablet into my pillow fort behind the couch, and watch Rosanna Pansino’s Elsa and Anna Cake Tutorial. To this day I still have the words memorized. This was my first and best experience with social media. It was fun, colorful, earnest, and I even learned something! When my friends started upgrading their tablets and Youtube to iPhones and Tiktok, I started resenting the internet for taking away the time I used to worship with my friends. In those moments, younger me would have been over the moon about a social media ban. Eight years and a whole lot more internet experience later, something to that effect is finally taking place.
Sound of ABC10 Newsclip
REPORTER: The bill is responding to mental health concerns about teenagers on social media. AB 1709 would make platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok and Youtube either have teen accounts that don’t use addictive features, or ban teenagers from their platforms entirely. In theory, the bill would make social media companies check ages at a device level, using the information already required by another law. That law requires you to register your age when you buy a new phone or computer.
Sound of scrolling through and Instagram Feed
REPORTER: The mental health impacts of social media worries a lot of people, whether you’re an assemblymember and parent who authored the bill…
ASSEMBLYMEMBER JOSH LOWENTHAL: It's the first generation in recorded history that's doing worse intellectually, academically, IQ scores, reading scores, math scores, socialization than the generation before it.
REPORTER: Or a teen living in Oakland…
CHARLEY CHESNEY-ADAM: I used to sneak them on my phone, and, um, especially it- I think it was mostly Snapchat that I noticed that I was actually getting super stressed out and anxious.
REPORTER: Or a teen who was the target of a cyberbullying campaign
AERIN COHN TESTIMONY: What started as a few cruel comments escalated into a coordinated effort to humiliate and isolate me. My name was attached to lies, screenshots were weaponized, and rumors spread instantly, and this was to over 200,000 people. I could not escape it. Social media followed me into every space I once considered safe. I was not equipped to handle what these platforms put in front of me, and they were not designed to protect me. They were designed to keep me engaged even when that engagement caused serious harm.
REPORTER: That was Aerin Cohn, a teenager who testified in April to support the new social media bill. Aerin’s from Los Angeles and is on the board of directors for the Organization for Social Media Safety. Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, who wrote the bill, asked her to share her story at the state capital.
AERIN COHN: It was an immediate yes
REPORTER: Her family booked the flight to Sacramento soon after
AERIN COHN : I was so excited. I was looking over, you know, my draft and trying to practice
REPORTER: After the flight, they had 6 hours to rest before leaving for the assembly.
AERIN COHN: I woke up, I'm like, "How do I look super business professional in front of all these people?”
REPORTER: Aerin carried a little folder as she walked
AERIN COHN: I felt very official
REPORTER: Assemblymember Lowenthal hopes that the bill will limit the critical mass on platforms. The idea is that if fewer people are on it, less people feel like they have to be on it.
INARA SHEFIQ: I think it would actually be really good for me socially because it would just remove any access I had to seeing what other people were doing without me there
REPORTER: That was Inara Shefiq, rising senior at Skyline High School in Oakland. Learning how to separate social media from real life has helped her feel less pressure.
INARA SHEFIQ: People manipulating young people online for capital because, because their engagement and their fear about who they are and, like, and their very, very emerging sense of self is, is kind of easy to, to tap into if, if you need to sell something, right?
REPORTER: It's too easy for me to agree. As a rising senior myself, my feed has been flooded with college do’s and don’ts, horror stories, and speculated requirements for admission.
Sound of College related scrolling through Instagram
INARA SHEFIQ: I see so much insecurity in my peers about, like, I couldn't ever be possibly doing enough.
REPORTER: But it's not all bad. Social media can be great at feeding teens news and stories that spark their interests.
Sound of Erin Meryl Mcgurk on Origins of Philosophy, Instagram
Sound of Marysa Maylin - Plyometrics for beginners, Instagram
REPORTER: Inara shares that through instagram, she discovered one of her favorite artists, Todd Rundgren, who she found has a really interesting background.
INARA SHEFIQ: I learned about all of that from, from an Instagram video, and then it-- and then I did more research because it piqued my interest, and then now I, I'm such a huge fan of his music and, and it's just given me s- you know, so much like artistic enjoyment.
REPORTER: She's also learned about trickle down economics, art, and culture.
INARA SHEFIQ: I've, I've never gotten a bad feeling from that side of social media because it doesn't feel like it's... It feels like it's earnestly trying to just, you know, like deepen your world
REPORTER: Even though it's not always a reliable source, many teens report relying on social media to learn about the world. Inara tells me that in her youth advocacy work, a huge part of her job is using social media to get young people registered to vote.
INARA SHEFIQ: It is just objectively true that the best way to reach a lot of young people and grab their attention enough is through social media.
REPORTER: The algorithm that would put Inara’s content on your for you page is part of a feature that the new bill classifies as “addictive.” The new social media BILL would ban what it calls “algorithmic content recommendation,” or personalized feeds, for teenagers. However, several organizations are concerned about how this could hinder access to information for young people. Rindala [RIN-duh-lah] Alajaji [ah-lah-JA-ji] works on legislative advocacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The nonprofit helps protect civil rights in the digital world, and is very opposed to social media ban bills like AB 1709
RINDALA ALAJAJI: what the legislature has deemed as the addictive features a lot of times have been actually ways in which young people are able to learn more about some of their interests and who they are
REPORTER: Rin shares that while working in LGBTQ policy she’s seen just how important social media can be to find community and share stories
RINDALA ALAJAJI: as a young person myself, I, I use social media a lot and, um, found community, found, uh, a respite from, from, you know, unfriendly environments in school or at home
REPORTER: It makes her sad to think of a future where young people who need a safe environment and support would be cut from access.
Rin tells me that access to social media and personalized feeds actually have a huge impact on LGBTQ+ young people. She remembers one young person testifying at a different hearing that they first found out about the queer community and the Trevor Project through social media. In areas without a large queer community, access to this kind of information can be incredibly important.
RINDALA ALAJAJI: the legislature and, and the sponsors of the bill have drawn a very simplified image of the impacts on social media-- of social media on young people. Um, and it's just simply not that black and white. Um, the science is not settled on the impacts of social media on young people.
REPORTER: Rin is also concerned about the age verification requirement. Although the bill wouldn’t force device companies to require ID, it doesn’t ban it. If someone tricks the system, those operating companies would be liable for damages. And liabilities are high - they can be up to 25 hundred dollars per case.
RINDALA ALAJAJI: If I was them, I wouldn't want, you know, every time someone lies and puts a fake birthday, for me to be liable for $2,500. So I'm gonna be- More likely to be like, "No, upload real ID," or, uh, or "Do a, I, I need actual proof.
REPORTER: The problem with having users upload official IDs is with online autonomy. Rin’s organization gets concerned when government info starts to be associated with people’s online lives.
RINDALA ALAJAJI: it's worrisome for, for protesters, for activists, for journalists, for whistleblowers, for anyone who's worried about, you know, their-- the things that they either access online or share online being associated with their, their self or their personal, you know, with their family
REPORTER: Even though the bill is controversial, one opinion among everyone I spoke to for this story, from adults to teens, was unanimous: teenagers need to be involved in the legislative discussion.
ASSEMBLY MEMBER JOSH LOWENTHAL: it's critical that youth voices are front and center to any policy that we create in the state of California that affect them directly
INARA SHEFIQ: in order to best understand how, what would be the most beneficial to teenagers in, in terms of social media, who else to engage with than, like, teenagers who use social media, you know?
RINDALA ALAJAJI: I think we cannot really talk about this without talking to young people and having young people tell us, you know, if this is actually a problem.
AERIN COHN: at the end of the day, we're the ones that this bill is about, so we should be at the center of these conversations
REPORTER: There are some parts of the bill that teenagers agree with. Many teens feel in favor of limiting the infinite scroll on apps, as long as it's paired with other access to information.
INARA SHEFIQ: I hope that if that does happen, if, if the infinite scroll is taken away, um, some other avenue is opened for, for older teenagers to be able to kind of, you know, like build their media literacy and, and have, have access to things that teach them political language and, and the way that things work.
REPORTER: A big priority for teenagers is to improve their online literacy and emotional regulation skills.
INARA SHEFIQ: it's really important that, that we trust young people with their ability to re- regulate things or, or at least if, if not teach, you know? if you don't trust them to build the skills that, uh, to regulate emotionally how social media makes you feel, then are they gonna be able to do that when they turn 18? Or is it just going to be a delayed start to whatever, you know?
REPORTER: Young people also want to make sure that their constitutional rights are protected.
AERIN COHN: I would say my main concern honestly regarding the bill is just making sure that it's implemented in a way that actually works and still allows people to express their, um, freedom of speech, their First Amendment. Specifically, though, that age verification is done thoughtfully with privacy in mind. it needs to be paired with digital literacy and education and continued pressure on these platforms to design responsibly
REPORTER: This could potentially mean passing stronger data privacy laws.
Some other ideas that were shared were having app time limits that you can’t ignore, making adaptive feeds optional, or deleting the “like” button. A huge priority for users of all ages is to be able to personally regulate their social media usage. They want their autonomy protected by legislation . In fact, in March 2026, students introduced a new youth-written assembly bill. Its called the Digital Wellness Education Act.
Sound of AB2071 Hearing
REPORTER: The bill actually written by teenagers was one that was asking for education - about how to healthily interact with social media and AI. Ultimately teens want participation in the discussions, and agency over their decisions. And many adults agree with them .
Assemblymember Lowenthal tells me that his office has been in conversation with youth-led organizations, like Design It For Us, the Young People's Alliance, and the Youth POWER Project. However, Lowenthal is concerned about how maturely teenagers can actually think about issues with long term consequences.
ASSEMBLYMEMBER JOSH LOWENTHAL: Well, if you ask teenagers if they should have the right to drink or to vote or to, uh, ride their bicycle or skateboard without a helmet, they'll probably tell you that they should have those rights. And the truth of the matter is, is without a prefrontal cortex fully developed, that they don't have the same physiological ability to assess consequence the way that adults do.
REPORTER: One of the reasons this bill exists is because some legislators assume that teenagers need intervention and protection.The thing is, whether or not teens can make mature decisions on critical issues varies from person to person. There are teens who barely use social media at all. There are also adults who struggle with social media addiction. Many people, across all ages, are conscious of the risks of social media, but still struggle with their usage habits. I think this means the problem isn’t about awareness, but about agency. Interestingly, both the critics and the supporters of AB 1709 defend their positions using the word “agency”. Supporters believe that removing access creates agency, as users are protected from features that make self regulation harder. Critics believe that agency is having access to social media. I don’t think that these perspectives are mutually exclusive. To me, the best solution would both address addiction and personal choice. Ultimately, my opinion is that agency of this sort would come from more young voices in legislation.
AERIN COHN: we're asking for the platforms that we use every day to not be rigged against us. Like, we wanna be on the same team with it.
REPORTER: Like most teenagers, I’ve had a very complicated relationship with social media. I’ve had equal moments of frustration and inspiration, from the joy of watching a Anna and Elsa cake tutorial to getting hours sucked away through doomscrolling. I’m excited that social media legislation is being discussed. And I’m also not certain that this bill is the perfect fix. What I do know is that teen involvement in these decisions can only make it better. And for that, I am hopeful about the future of social media.