A 2739 — Prohibits social media platforms from promoting certain practices or features of eating disorders to child users.

A2739 1R [First Reprint] ASSEMBLY, No.

Assemblywoman ANDREA KATZ District 8 (Atlantic and Burlington) Assemblyman  MICHAEL VENEZIA District 34 (Essex) Assemblywoman  MARISA SWEENEY District 25 (Morris and Passaic)   Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Sampson, Assemblywomen SpeightSpeight, Park, Brennan, Carter, Peterpaul, Haider, Assemblyman Singh, Assemblywomen Morales and ParkBagolie         SYNOPSIS      Prohibits social media platforms from promoting certain practices or features of eating disorders to child users.

  CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT      IntroducedAs Pendingreported Technicalby Reviewthe byAssembly LegislativeOversight, Counsel.Reform and Federal Relations Committee on February 12, 2026, with amendments.

            1.  As used in P.L.    , c.    (C.        ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):

          “Child user” means a person who is younger than 18 years of age and who uses one or more social media platforms.

          “Content” means any statements, materials, documents, photographs, graphics, or other information that is created, posted, shared, or otherwise transmitted on a social media platform, except that “content” shall not include any information that is posted online exclusively for the purpose of cloud storage, transmitting documents, or file collaboration.

          “Eating disorder” means a behavioral condition characterized by a severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions, including but not limited to, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.

          “Public or semi-public Internet-based service or application” excludes any Internet-based service or application that is used to facilitate communication within a business or enterprise among employees or affiliates of the business or enterprise, provided that access to the service or application is restricted to employees or affiliates of the business or enterprise using the service or application.

          “Social media platform” or “platform” means a public or semi-semi-public public Internet-based service or application that has users in this State and meets the following criteria:

          a.  a primary function of the service or application is to connect users in order to allow users to interact socially with each other within the service or application, except that a service or application that provides email or direct messaging services shall not be considered to meet this criterion on the basis of that function alone;

and           b.  the service or application allows users to do all of the following:

          (1) construct a public or semipublic profile for purposes of signing into and using the service or application;

          (2) populate a public list of other users with whom an individual shares a social connection within the service or application;

and           (3) create or post content viewable by other users, including, but not limited to, on message boards, in chat rooms, or through a landing page or main feed that presents the user with content generated by other users.

          A service or application that consists primarily of news, sports, entertainment, ecommerce,e-commerce, or content that is preselected by the provider, or for which any chat, comments, or interactive functionality is incidental to, directly related to, or dependent on the provision of such content, shall not be considered to meet the criteria of this subsection of this definition on the basis of these functions alone.

      1“Social media platform” or “platform” shall not include an online service, website, platform, or application where the predominant or exclusive function is providing career development opportunities, including professional networking, job skills, learning certifications, and job posting and application services platforms that primarily provide career networking and professional development opportunities.1        2.    a.  Except as otherwise provided in this section, a social media platform shall not use a design, algorithm, practice, affordance, or feature that the platform knows, or which by the exercise of reasonable care should have known, could cause child users to develop an eating disorder, including, but not limited to, promoting diet products.

    STATEMENT        This bill prohibits social media platforms from using a design, algorithm, practice, affordance, or feature that the platform knows, or which by the exercise of reasonable care should have known, could cause child users to develop an eating disorder, including, but not limited to, promoting diet products.

     A social media platform would not be found to violate the provisions of this bill if the social media platform:

(1) demonstrates that the platform instituted and maintained an internal quarterly audit program in which the platform audits its practices, algorithms, designs, features, and affordances to determine whether these practices, algorithms, designs, features, or affordances cause, have the potential to cause, or contribute to the development of eating disorders in child users on the platform;

(2) hires an independent third party to conduct an annual audit of its practices, algorithms, designs, features, or affordances to determine whether these practices, algorithms, designs, features, or affordances cause, have the potential to cause, or contribute to the development of eating disorders in child users on the platform;

and within 30 calendar days of the completion of the audit and upon the social media platform’s receipt of notification of the issue, the social media platform takes action to correct any practice, algorithm, design, feature, or affordance if an audit determines that the practice, algorithm, design, feature, or affordance used by the platform causes, has the potential to cause, or contributes to the development of eating disorders in child users;

or (3) is controlled by a business entity that generated less than $100 million in gross revenue during the preceding calendar year.

     Under the bill, a social media platform would not be liable for content that:

(1) is generated, uploaded, or shared on the social media platform by a user of the platform, unless the content is paid for, including through advertisement sales, by the social media platform;

(2) is created solely by a third party and passively displayed by the social media platform;

(3) the social media platform was not, in whole or in part, responsible for creating or developing;

or (4) involves child users that would otherwise be protected by 47 U.S.C.

s.230, the United States Constitution or the State Constitution.

     This bill defines “eating disorder” as a behavioral condition characterized by a severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions, including but not limited to, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.

     A social media platform that violates the provisions of the bill would be liable for a civil penalty, not to exceed $250,000 per violation.