Senate moves S289 forward, a Vermont 'Kids Code' to curb design practices that harm minors online

The Vermont Senate advanced S289, an "age-appropriate design code" that would place minimum duties of care on certain online platforms and prohibit design features and data practices judged likely to harm minors.

The Senate's economic-development reporter described the bill as a consumer-protection measure built around definitions of "covered entity," "minor consumer," and "social media platform." The bill targets companies that operate in Vermont and for whom buying or selling consumers' personal data is a significant portion of their business model; the reporter said the committee intentionally narrowed scope to avoid sweeping in Vermont-based small tech firms and specifically excluded journalism organizations.

Among the measure's substantive provisions are default high-privacy settings for minors, the ability for minors to request unpublishing of content, limits on unsolicited adult contact with minors, prohibitions on certain low-friction reward tactics (for example, endless scroll and autoplay), and restrictions on selling minors' personal data or default processing of precise location data. Violations would be actionable as deceptive practices by the Attorney General's office; the bill gives the Attorney General discretion whether to issue a notice of violation before initiating further action.

The committee reported extensive testimony from local students, pediatricians, national advocates and Frances Haugen, a tech whistleblower who has testified before Congress. The reporter argued the bill mirrors principles used in the European Union and United Kingdom by focusing on privacy-by-design and product-safety approaches rather than regulating speech.

Floor debate included cautionary comments about legal costs and enforcement; one senator urged vigilance about potential litigation risks when challenging powerful technology companies and asked future legislatures to review costs and resources for enforcement. The presiding officer announced the committee report was adopted and that third reading of S289 was ordered; the clerk read a roll call showing 27 yeas and 0 nays for ordering third reading.

The bill sets an effective date of July 1, 2024, for its provisions and contemplates rulemaking by the Attorney General to implement enforcement practices. The Senate did not take a final passage vote during this sitting; the bill will return for further consideration.