/Technology

Focusing on addictive features rather than broadly banning social media is the most honest part of this bill. Infinite scroll, autoplay, and non-dismissable notifications are not design accidents — they are deliberate choices to keep users hooked. At least lawmakers are naming the right problem. But execution is where everything falls apart. A state law does not stop anything that happens through a VPN or outside American app stores. Meta itself said age verification needs to happen at the app store layer, and as much as that argument serves their own interests, they are not technically wrong. The state of North Carolina does not control the global app distribution infrastructure. The group that will feel this the most is not teenagers from structured households, where parents will sign the consent form in two minutes. It is 14 and 15-year-olds whose parents are absent, disengaged, or simply will not understand the process. For them, the law does not eliminate access — it just makes everything more informal and less supervised. The practical outcome may be the opposite of what was intended. And when the bill’s own sponsor says he expects to “come back year after year” to adjust the law, it is pretty clear nobody knows exactly what this solves right now.