Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed Senate Bill 854 into law on Monday limiting the use of several social media apps for teens. The new law requires social media companies to implement a one hour limit for all users under the age of 16.
The apps being restricted include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Parents will have the option to adjust the limits up or down. One of the bill’s cosponsors Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-Henrico) said in a hearing, “It’s a good first start, and it’s a good way for parents to be able to have better control over how much social media their kids are on.”
A previous version of the bill would’ve included stronger language banning “addictive feeds” for anyone under 18. This would’ve affected many of the algorithm-based aspects of social media sites such as YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. This version was eventually struck down, but some of the bill’s supporters hope to see these measures implemented in the future.
Patrick Cushing, a lobbyist for Instagram and Facebook’s parent company Meta, expressed support for the new bill in a hearing saying “What is contained in the bill actually mimics a significant amount of what we already have for our teen accounts in Instagram. So, Instagram has already moved to this type of restriction and this codifies that plus some.”
The law won’t officially go into effect until January 1st of 2026, but it will still affect many freshmen and sophomores at West Po next year.
Junior Rhett Meyers expressed relief that he wasn’t included in the bill, “I had heard they were thinking about restricting it for everyone under 18 but I was glad they changed that.”
Meyers also doubted the effectiveness of the bill saying, “Parents can already restrict most apps for their kids anyway and it’s still a problem. I’m not sure if it’s going to really change anything.”
