Earlier this year, Virginia successfully passed Senate Bill 854 to provide greater protections for children in addition to requiring greater parental consent of children on social media. However, proposed changes at the eleventh hour threaten to jeopardize the bill.

The initial bill had challenges—including constitutional concerns raised by HLF and others.  But SB 854’s sponsor, Senator VanValkenburg, worked with both chambers to produce a substitute bill that addressed these concerns.

As a result, the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate both unanimously (97-0 and 39-0 respectively) passed Senate Bill 854, which HLF supported in its final form.

Unfortunately, however, proposed changes by Governor Youngkin’s office earlier this week would add provisions that raise serious Constitutional concerns and seem likely to result in SB 854 being thrown out in court.

The proposed changes to Senate Bill 854 includes language very similar to legislation (including in Utah) that has been successfully challenged in court on First Amendment grounds as recently as last year. If these changes are adopted to the Virginia bill, parents and children in the state would lose the bill’s protections.

We urge the Virginia Legislature to reject these proposed changes and instead pass the version of the bill that unanimously sailed through the Virginia Legislature to give parents more control and enhance protections on social media for children.