SANTA FE, N.M. — In an update from the New Mexico attorney general and the Department of Justice on their lawsuit against social media companies like Meta, X, and Google, they claim the tech giants knowingly ignored safeguards designed to protect underage users. Now, state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would protect children online.

If passed, the bill would expand New Mexico’s Kids Code, which makes sure products are safe and age-appropriate, to also apply to online platforms.

“This year we’re going headfirst looking at the safety of our children online,” state Rep. Pamelya Herndon said.

Whether it’s on a computer or their phone, New Mexico lawmakers want to make sure social media companies are only showing kids age-appropriate content.

“Whenever we take our children, for example, to a playground, or to an amusement park, we want to make sure that those places are safe. We also want to make sure that online platforms are also safe,” Herndon said.

Herndon and Sen. George Muñoz are co-sponsoring this bill, and it has two parts. First:

“We require those individuals who have online platforms that are assessed by youth to make sure that they are not selling their data to someplace that would absolutely cause these children to be led down a pathway that would lead to fraud,” Herndon said.

It would also try to limit the amount of time kids spend on their phones.

“We are requiring them to reassess their product and make sure that they are not doing things to keep kids online longer, and that they’re not scrolling and sending notifications on a regular basis,” Herndon said.

Muñoz said in a statement:

“Despite skyrocketing rates of youth depression, anxiety, eating disorders and overdoses, technology companies purposely design their products to keep kids on screens as much as possible.”

They are calling this bill Common Sense Consumer Protections, saying the state regulates physical products for kids’ safety, so why not hold digital products to the same standards?

“We’ve been working on this legislation for a while. And this is the second year that it’s been introduced. And we are happy that the attorney general has paid attention to the legislation when it was first introduced and is taking a step forward and joining with us to make sure that our children are safe,” Herndon said.

The bill has been filed in the state Senate and got its first committee assignments Thursday.

Herndon says she is confident it will make it to the governor’s desk this year.