States Ready to Reboot California-Style Kids’ Privacy Proposals

State lawmakers are retooling efforts to replicate California’s first-in-the-nation law requiring online companies to proactively protect young users after opposition by the tech industry and other complications derailed their measures this year.

Lawmakers in Maryland and Minnesota said they will bring back legislation modeled after California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, which boosts privacy standards and site design requirements for youth under 18 for a broad swath of sites. A coalition of advocacy groups aiming to address teen mental health issues and privacy concerns pushed the proposals this year in those states and elsewhere, though none have been enacted.

Supporters ...