Massachusetts House to vote on social media ban for young minors, restrictions for cell phone in schools

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Apr 6, 2026

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Massachusetts may join a growing list of states attempting to outright ban social media usage for young minors with the House scheduled to take up legislation addressing the issue this week.

“The bill prohibits social media use for children under 14 in Massachusetts, and requires platforms to obtain parental consent for users ages 14 and 15,” said House Speaker Ron Mariano and Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz in a joint statement. “This ban would be among the most restrictive in the entire country, helping to protect young people from harmful content and addictive algorithms that have a proven negative impact on their mental health.”

The House bill would implement the social media ban as of October 2026 requiring companies to implement age verification systems, as well as enacting a requirement for school districts to prohibit the use of cell phones and other personal electronic devices during the school day.

House lawmakers are scheduled to take up and vote on the bill Wednesday. The state Senate previously approved the cell phone in schools policy in July but have not cleared a social media ban.

Massachusetts’s potential social media restrictions tracks with a number of similar initiatives in many states.

Several, including Florida, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Nebraska and Tennessee, have enacted legislation banning use or requiring parental consent for minors up to 17 years old and enforcing fines for companies.

Legal challenges across the country have put holds on many of the measures, disputing whether the bans violate First Amendment protections. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Mississippi’s law to remain in effect during ongoing litigation, while an Ohio law was blocked outright by a federal judge last April.

Online businesses trade association NetChoice has led several legal challenges and said of the Massachusetts proposal that such bans “block lawful speech and create massive security risks that lead to data breaches.”

In December, Australia became the first country to ban use of most major social media sites — including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, YouTube, and more — for kids under 16 years old, followed by Indonesia in March. The Australian ban requires companies to use “reasonable steps” to keep kids off the sites, including government-issued IDs, facial or voice recognition or “age-inference” technology to estimate age based on behavior.

Michlewitz said Monday that the Massachusetts proposal is “probably more in line with closer to what Florida has done.”

The proposal allows anyone 16 or older to use the platforms freely without parental consent. The bill gives parents of minor users access to data submitted by the users on the platforms and requires the attorney general to construct regulations to implement the ban by September, a month before it would go into effect.

The similar Florida law remains in appeals court two years after it was signed by the Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Lawmakers believe the proposal is on “solid ground,” Michlewitz said Monday, and hope it would “stand up through any legal challenges.”

The social media and cell phone bans have both been supported by Gov. Maura Healey. The governor announced the social media restrictions for young teens and kids in her State of the Commonwealth address in January, based on recommendations from the attorney general.

“These platforms are built with addictive algorithms and they exploit insecurities, especially in our young people,” Healey said. “So I am proposing strict new requirements to protect kids and teens on social media. We will require parental consent and age verification on all of these platforms. We’re going to prevent social media companies from targeting kids for profit.”

Healey said she would host a press briefing on the measure on Tuesday ahead of the House vote.

The cell phone restriction would require DESE to give districts a model “bell-to-bell” ban to enforce no use of personal electronic devices in school and create a pilot program to with 10 districts using technology to prevent students from using devices.

“The simple reality is that Massachusetts must do more to ensure that our laws keep pace with modern challenges – especially when it comes to protecting our children, and to setting students up for success in the classroom and beyond,” Michlewitz and Mariano stated. “We look forward to productive conversations with the Membership in the coming days, and to passing this important legislation on Wednesday.”

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(State House News reporting contributed to this article.)

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