New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday that the state is taking on Big Tech over children’s online safety, pointing to a package of bills she signed to require technology companies to put young users’ interests first and to establish a Social Media Research Center in New Jersey.
NEW JERSEY — Gov. Mikie Sherrill delivered a pointed message to Big Tech on Tuesday, August 11, highlighting new state action aimed at protecting children online.
“Big Tech might have stopped Republicans in Washington from holding them accountable. But they won’t stop me,” Sherrill wrote in a post on X.
She said she signed a package of bills designed to protect children online, including measures requiring technology companies to design platforms with children’s best interests in mind and establishing a Social Media Research Center in New Jersey.
The statement puts New Jersey directly into a growing national debate over how much responsibility technology and social media companies should bear for the experiences of children using their platforms.
Platforms Expected to Put Children First
A central part of New Jersey’s effort is the New Jersey Kids Code Act, which seeks to place greater responsibility on companies whose online products and services are likely to be accessed by minors.
Instead of leaving online safety entirely to parents, the approach focuses on how platforms themselves are built.
The underlying principle is straightforward: if companies know children are likely to use their services, the safety and best interests of those children should be considered when those services are designed.
That approach could bring greater scrutiny to features that encourage prolonged engagement, the collection and use of children’s data and other design practices that could potentially affect younger users.
New Social Media Research Center
New Jersey is also moving forward with a Social Media Research Center at a four-year public institution of higher education in the state.
The center is intended to study social media and its effects, particularly on children and adolescents, and help develop evidence-based recommendations about safer digital environments.
New Jersey’s FY2027 budget includes $500,000 for the initiative.
The center could give the state its own research base for evaluating how rapidly changing social media platforms affect young people rather than relying exclusively on studies produced elsewhere.
Why New Jersey Is Acting
Concerns about children’s relationship with social media have grown across the country.
Parents, educators, researchers and lawmakers have raised questions about privacy, cyberbullying, excessive screen time, addictive design features and children’s exposure to inappropriate or harmful material.
New Jersey’s latest action shifts part of that responsibility away from families alone and toward the companies designing the digital environments children enter every day.
From Parental Controls to Corporate Responsibility
For years, much of the conversation about children’s online safety has centered on what parents should do: monitor phones, limit screen time, check apps and decide when children are ready for social media.
New Jersey’s approach raises another question:
If platforms are deliberately designed to capture and hold users’ attention, how much responsibility should the companies behind them have when those users are children?
Sherrill’s message Tuesday suggests the state has already reached its conclusion: protecting children online should not be the responsibility of parents alone.
Sources
Gov. Mikie Sherrill — X, August 11, 2026:
Office of the Governor of New Jersey — Kids Online Safety initiatives
[…] JERSEY — Earlier this summer, the debate was about what New Jersey might do to protect children […]