Gov. Sherrill backs social media restrictions for young people
Grichka BEYSSON-LEANDRI / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill indicated support for bills demanding black box warning for frequent social media users and limits on targeted ads for minors.
This story was originally published by the New Jersey Monitor.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill indicated support for a raft of child online safety bills wending their way through the Legislature Wednesday.
At a press conference at Cherokee High School in Evesham where she touted proposals to invest state funds into a social media research center and a new office focused on how the internet affects young people’s mental health, Sherrill appeared to endorse legislation that would require black box warnings, stricter social media content controls for minors, and limits on how platforms can advertise to underage users.
“We need measures to protect our kids’ privacy and to stop targeted ads to children, measures to give parents more control and to require clear warnings about risks,” said Sherrill, a Democrat.
The governor went on to highlight legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Andrea Katz (D-Burlington) and Sen. Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson).
One bill sponsored by Katz and advanced by the Assembly’s technology committee last month would bar social media platforms from serving targeted advertisements to minors, sending notifications at night or during school hours, and collecting some data about underage users.
That bill would also require disclosures about how platforms use the data of underage users, their safety tools, and the algorithms those platforms use. Further, it would mandate that platforms set underage users’ privacy settings to their strictest levels by default and limit platforms’ ability to request minors change those settings.
“It’s not about banning social media. This is about balance, and it’s about giving families the support they need. And it’s about holding the companies accountable for the roles that they play because this isn’t abstract,” Katz said Wednesday. “It’s real life. It’s happening in our homes, our schools, and in our communities.”
Another bill in the package would require social media apps to periodically display black box warnings similar to those that appear on cigarettes. The legislation would also require apps to monitor users’ social media use and direct those who spend hours on the apps each day, post frequently, or log on shortly after waking to mental health resources.
Other bills in Katz’s package would extend child endangerment statutes to online spaces and create a social media research center at a four-year New Jersey university chosen by the state’s higher education secretary.
The center would be tasked with creating courses on safe social media use and studying how the platforms affect New Jerseyans, along with public awareness campaigns and recommendations to lawmakers.
“That’s going to help parents get information on how we can best tackle this for our children,” Sherrill said.
Sherrill’s push for stricter social media rules for children coincides with a similar push on the national level. A House panel earlier this month advanced legislation that would limit some addictive design features and mandate a new set of parental controls, including age verification to view mature content.
Lawmakers in states like Utah and California have also approved legislation to limit addictive design features on social media, particularly those aimed at children.
Legislation is only part of New Jersey’s spat with social media platforms. Sherrill’s administration has continued lawsuits filed against social media firms filed under her predecessor.
Former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin sued the social media platform TikTok in 2024, alleging it had harmed children by designing a deliberatively addicting app to scrape users’ data and show them ads.
He sued the messaging app Discord in 2025, alleging it had overstated the efficacy of its safety controls, exposing children to violent and sexual content. The state sued Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, for youth harms in 2023.
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