The bill, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, would require parents to give “verifiable” consent if they want to decrease or increase these daily time limits.
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia law to force social media companies to limit kids under 16 to one hour of scrolling per day on their apps and platforms was signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday.
SB854, known as the “Consumer Data Protection Act,” will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026. The bill, subtitled “social media platforms, responsibilities and prohibitions to minors,” had overwhelming support within the Virginia General Assembly from both Republicans and Democrats, with all commonwealth lawmakers voting for the legislation.
The law would require social media platforms to use “neutral age screen mechanisms” to determine whether a user is younger than 16 and then limit their use of the app or platform to one hour per day.
The bill would also require parents to give “verifiable” consent if they want to decrease or increase these daily time limits.
Introduced by Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg in January, the Democrat from Henrico County called the SB854, “a giant first step toward regulating social media and protecting our kids.”
Youngkin had wanted the law to go even further, pitching another version of the law in March, with amendments raising the restricted ages from under 16 to under 18. While the Senate unanimously approved these changes, the House chose not to vote on the governor’s amendments, leaving the restrictions only with kids younger than 16.
The Republican governor has championed laws that would restrict social media and smartphone use among children and teens. In November 2024, Youngkin signed Executive Order 43, which called social media a “youth mental health crisis.”
Neutral age screen mechanisms are already used by many social media sites, such as YouTube, these prompt users to verify their age in a way that doesn’t encourage young people to enter a fake birth date. For example, a neutral age screen would not explicitly say that a certain age restricts content.
However, the part of this new law that would require a unique challenge for social media sites is restricting users to one hour per day through this mechanism. While there are apps that give parents and users the ability to set up screen time limits, these restrictions are not automatically based on a user’s age.
Companies like Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, have rolled out parental control settings in the past year that they say would protect children under 16 from “sensitive content.” The changes came after the social media company was sued by 41 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. in 2023 over mental health concerns that resulted from teens and children using its platforms.
In 2023, Utah’s governor signed a law that would limit social media use for anyone under 18, banning minors from accessing apps from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., without parental consent. That bill prompted lawsuits over free speech by a nonprofit associated with Meta and Google. Ultimately, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, was unable to enforce the social media restrictions after a federal court judge blocked the law in September 2024.
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