Utah Senate advances package of bills, including social media rules for minors and updates to criminal thresholds

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Senate on the floor advanced a slate of bills Tuesday, moving several measures to third reading and recording final roll-call tallies on a range of items including social media regulation focused on minors, school‑readiness funding changes, and updates to monetary thresholds in the criminal code.

Senator McHale, sponsor of first substitute Senate Bill 194, framed the measure as a consumer-protection bill targeted at minors rather than a regulation of the First Amendment. "Social media is a product. Social media companies are massive data‑mining companies," McHale said, arguing the bill addresses data privacy, excessive use and design features that encourage addictive behaviors. The bill, as presented on the floor, would add age‑assurance tools, limit endless scrolling and push notifications for minors, and require parental consent where adult authorization is used to permit data use.

The sponsor said the bill removes a private right of action and places enforcement with the Division of Consumer Protection. When asked about enforcement and how the law would apply to emancipated minors or guardians who do not speak English, McHale said age assurance verifies minor accounts and that certain tools would differ for minors; enforcement would be handled by the Division of Consumer Protection rather than private lawsuits.

"The enforcement would be the Division of Consumer Protection," McHale said in response to questioning.

Votes at a glance (as announced on the floor):
- First substitute Senate Bill 194 (social media regulation): announced 28 yes, 0 no, 1 absent — read for a third time.
- Senate Bill 220 (school readiness amendments): announced 18 yes, 0 no, 11 absent — read for a third time after adoption of Amendment 2.
- Senate Bill 223 (youth fee waivers for foster/unsheltered youth): announced 18 yes, 1 no, 10 absent — read for a third time.
- Senate Bill 242 (Utah Lake repeal/modifications): announced 20 yes, 0 no, 9 absent — read for a third time.
- Second substitute Senate Bill 128 (criminal monetary threshold adjustments): announced 19 yes, 4 no, 6 absent — read for a third time.
- First substitute Senate Bill 26 (behavioral health licensing): announced on the floor as having sufficient yes votes to be read for third; transcript count recorded (see provenance) and sponsors said the measure remains a work in progress regarding prescribing authority for psychologists.
- First substitute Senate Bill 237 (towing modifications): announced 20 yes, 1 no, 8 absent — read for a third time.
- Second substitute House Bill 29 (sensitive material review amendments, conference committee report adopted): passed in the Senate as announced on the floor (counts read on the record).
- First substitute Senate Bill 204 (condominium and community association amendments): amendment adopted and read for a third time as announced.

What the bills do
Senate Bill 194: Sponsor McHale described the bill as targeting data privacy and design elements that affect minors’ mental health and access; it would introduce age‑assurance and device/usage limits and would place enforcement with the state Division of Consumer Protection. The sponsor stressed the bill is aimed at product features affecting minors and said the private right of action was removed from this version.

Senate Bill 220: The sponsor described steps to streamline the administration of school‑readiness grants and consolidate oversight between two agencies so private childcare providers and school‑based pre‑K programs can better access funds tied to quality standards. Amendment 2 was adopted on the floor before the roll call.

Second substitute Senate Bill 128: Senator Pitcher said the measure adjusts monetary thresholds in the criminal code for inflation so that property offenses remain proportionate in severity; he said the last comprehensive update was in 1995 and a partial update occurred in 2010. Questions on stakeholder support and impacts on county prosecutors and sheriffs were raised on the floor.

First substitute Senate Bill 26: The bill restructures behavioral‑health licensing. Floor members pressed the sponsor on whether psychologists would obtain prescribing authority; the sponsor said prescribing language is being refined in substitute drafts and would be limited in scope.

Process notes and next steps
Several measures were circled or uncircled by motion (a procedural floor action that holds or brings bills to the floor). Senator Wyler moved under suspension of the rules to recall and reconsider Second Substitute Senate Bill 107 (election process amendments) in order to pursue a conference committee after additional edits were requested by the Elections Office; that procedural motion passed under suspension of the rules.

The session moved through a packed calendar, and the Senate adjourned with a motion to reconvene at 10 a.m. on the next scheduled day.

Attribution and evidence
Reporting is based solely on remarks and roll-call tallies announced on the Senate floor transcript. Direct quotes and descriptions are attributed to speakers as they appear in the floor record. Where the transcript reads an explicit tally aloud, that announced number is reported above; in a small number of places the recorded roll‑call readout in the transcript is garbled or ambiguous and those instances are flagged in the provenance and audit sections below.

What’s next
Bills read for third time proceed according to Senate rules (further action depends on whether other steps — concurrence, signatures, or conference committee outcomes — are required). Sponsors noted ongoing drafting on some measures (notably SB 26) and some bills have conference or inter‑chamber steps remaining.