S.C. Code Ann. § 39-5-910: Definitions.

As used in this article:

(1) "Account holder" means a South Carolina resident who has an account or a profile with a covered social media platform that is associated by the covered social media platform with a unique identifier during any period in which a covered social media platform knows or should reasonably know is physically located in this State.

(2) "Addictive interface features" means:

(a) infinite scrolling, which means:

(i) continuously loading content, or content that loads as the account holder scrolls down the page without the need to open a separate page; or

(ii) seamless content or the use of pages with no visible or apparent end or page breaks;

(b) display of a profile-based feed;

(c) push notifications, whether audible, visual, or tactile, designed to call the attention of the account holder to newly posted content, or to user responses to content posted by the account holder, or to inform the account holder about other specific activities or events related to the account holder's account. Push notifications do not include a notification for the purpose of alerting the account holder to incoming calls, text messages, email messages, or similar messages sent by human contacts and delivered by means of any application;

(d) auto-play video or video that begins to play without the account holder first clicking on the video or on a play button for that video;

(e) display of personal metrics that indicate the number of times other users have clicked a button or taken other action to indicate their reaction to content posted by the account holder, or have shared or reposted content posted by the account holder; or

(f) display of awards, badges, tiers, or any form of recognition of the account holder based on hours spent by the account holder on the social media platform, numbers of followers, numbers of postings, frequency or regularity of postings, or any other metric of usage or performance on the social media platform.

(3) "Child" means a South Carolina resident under the age of sixteen.

(4) "Covered social media platform" means a social media platform, including any parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of the social media platform, that collectively generated at least one billion dollars in advertising revenues annually, worldwide in one or more of the preceding three years.

(5) "First trigger date" means, with respect to each account holder and each covered social media platform, the date upon which it first becomes true that the account holder has been on the covered social media platform for twenty-five hours or more within a six-month period following the effective date of this act.

(6) "Paid commercial advertising" is advertising for which the social media platform receives compensation of any sort in return for displaying the advertising and that seeks to encourage the account holder to purchase a product or service or otherwise engage in a commercial transaction or to follow a link to a website that encourages the account holder to engage in a commercial transaction.

(7) "Notice to a parent" has the meaning established in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. Section 6501 and implementing regulations at 16 C.F.R. Part 312.4.

(8) "Parent" includes any legal guardian of a child who is a South Carolina resident.

(9)(a) "Personal information" means information about an account holder collected online that comprises "personal information" within the meaning of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. Section 6501(8) and implementing regulations, and:

(i) any record of or derived from online activity or history, search history, or online communications of an account holder with respect to any application, website, or social media platform;

(ii) any photograph or biometric information that is used or could reasonably be used to identify the account holder including, but not limited to, fingerprints, voiceprints, iris or retina imagery scans, facial templates, and gait imagery or metrics; and

(iii) any geolocation information associated with an account holder or with a device of an account holder.

(b) "Personal information" does not mean:

(i) an express search term, request, or selection submitted by the account holder during the current session on the covered social media platform;

(ii) an identifier used solely for the purpose of directing personal communications to or from the account holder; or

(iii) information that comprises account holder-selected or parent-selected settings relating to privacy, accessibility, or blocking of age-inappropriate content or technical information concerning the account holder's device.

(10) "Profile-based paid commercial advertising" means paid commercial advertising that has been selected or prioritized for display to an account holder based in whole or in part on personal information of the account holder. Advertising selected for display to an account holder is not profile-based paid commercial advertising if that selection process considers information about or an estimate of the age of the account holder solely for the purpose of excluding advertisements which by law or policy of the covered social media platform are not suitable for presentation to a child of that age.

(11)(a) "Profile-based feed" means a feed in which the material presented has been selected or prioritized by the covered social media platform for display to an account holder based in whole or in part on personal information of that account holder. Content created by a third party that is displayed to the account holder because the account holder has taken an affirmative step to select the third party's content for inclusion in the feed displayed to the account holder, such as by following, friending, or engaging in a similar action in relation to the third party, and not otherwise selected or prioritized for display to the account holder based on personal information, shall not render such feed a profile-based feed.

(b) An exclusion by a covered social media platform of certain content from the feed of an account holder based on information about or any estimate of the age of an account holder, solely for the purpose of excluding content that is obscene as to children aged sixteen or younger or by a policy of the covered social media platform that the content is not suitable for presentation to children of that age, does not render that feed a profile-based feed.

(12) "Second trigger date" means, with respect to each account holder and each covered social media platform, the date upon which it first becomes true that the account holder has been on the covered social media platform for fifty hours or more within a six-month period following the effective date of this act.

(13) "Social media platform" means an internet website or application that is open to the public, allows a user to create an account, and enables an account holder to communicate with other users for the primary purpose of posting and viewing information, comments, messages, images, or videos. The term does not include:

(a) a broadband internet access service as defined by the Federal Communications Commission;

(b) an online service, website, or application where the exclusive function is the support of communications, including email, video conferencing, or direct messaging consisting of text, photographs, pictures, images, or videos, only between the sender and recipients specifically identified by the sender, without displaying or posting publicly or to other users not specifically identified as the recipients by the sender; or

(c) an online service, application, or website the content of which consists primarily of information or content that is not generated by the user.

(14) "Verifiable parental consent" has the meaning established in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, 15 U.S.C. Section 6501(9), and implementing regulations at 16 C.F.R. Part 312.5, with the added requirement that the covered social media platform has retained documentation sufficient to reasonably establish that it has obtained verifiable parental consent within the meaning of those provisions.