West Virginia has already taken action to protect minors online. The harder question is whether the protections now on the books match the problems families are actually trying to solve.

For parents, online safety is not only about what children can access. It is also about what happens after they open an app: the notifications that pull them back, recommendation systems that determine what they see next, and endless feeds designed to keep them engaged.

That distinction matters because West Virginia’s newest online-safety law addresses a specific problem, not the entire digital environment.

What West Virginia’s new law actually does

House Bill 4412, which took effect June 12, requires certain websites and applications to verify that users are at least 18 before providing access to material harmful to minors when it makes up more than one-third of the site’s content. It also limits how verification information can be retained.

That is an important protection, but HB 4412 is not a general social media law. It does not regulate infinite scrolling, personalized recommendations, notifications or other engagement features. Its focus is narrower: restricting minors’ access to websites and applications dominated by sexually explicit material.

The law is also the latest in a series of West Virginia efforts to address online safety. Lawmakers previously considered bills focused on children’s online privacy, broader social media restrictions and parental controls over app access. None became law.

That history shows West Virginia has been testing different approaches. HB 4412 is a narrower step. The question now is whether it addresses the risks West Virginia families actually face online — and whether additional protections are needed.

The problem is bigger than access

The scale of young people’s digital lives helps explain why this distinction matters.

According to Pew Research Center, 97% of U.S. teens use the internet daily, and 40% say they are online almost constantly. Nearly half, 48%, say social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age.

Those numbers do not prove that social media causes mental health problems, and frequent use should not automatically be labeled addiction. But they do show why questions about how digital platforms operate deserve serious attention.

Research into problematic social media use is also developing. A review of 32 studies examining social media and anxiety found positive associations in more than half of the studies, with stronger associations in studies measuring problematic use and screen time. Association, however, is not proof of causation.

Good policy has to hold both ideas at once: children deserve protection, and policymakers should be careful about claiming more than the evidence establishes.

A law is only as strong as its effect

West Virginia is not alone in confronting these questions. States across the country are experimenting with different approaches to children’s online safety, creating a patchwork of rules covering age verification, parental involvement, privacy and platform design.

That makes implementation just as important as legislation.

Are families aware of the protections? Are covered websites complying? Are enforcement mechanisms being used? And are the rules actually reducing the risks they were designed to address?

Those questions should not be treated as criticism of HB 4412. They are the questions any state should ask after passing a law.

West Virginia also has a reason to pay attention to what happens beyond its borders. State Attorney General JB McCuskey recently joined other state attorneys general in a multistate settlement with Meta that requires additional child safety measures on Facebook and Instagram. The agreement followed allegations that Meta’s platforms harmed young users and encouraged problematic use — allegations Meta disputed.

The settlement does not answer every question about youth online safety. But it reinforces an important point: protecting children cannot be reduced to a single statute or a single type of online content.

West Virginia has taken a step. Now it should measure what that step accomplishes.

The goal should not be to regulate technology simply because it is new, nor to assume that every problem involving a teenager and a phone is the platform’s fault. Parents have responsibilities. Young people have responsibilities. Platforms have responsibilities, too.

The real test is whether West Virginia’s rules recognize all three — and whether, when a child goes online, those rules provide meaningful protection rather than simply another law on the books.

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