(The Center Square) – The California legislature passed a bill requiring social media age verification to prevent unauthorized use by minors involving addictive feeds or late night use. Technology experts warn the bill would effectively require users to provide ID to use social media, and thus threaten First Amendment freedom of speech and access to information.

SB 976, one of the last bills by State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who retired from the legislature at the end of the August session, now goes to California Gov. Newsom’s for approval. The bill would ban social media notifications to minors during school hours and between 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM without parental consent, require chronological, not algorithmic social media feed presented to minors without parental consent, and only allow these features if a social media company has “reasonably determined” the user is not a minor, or if a parent has consented.