King Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Protect Underage Children from Harmful Effects of Social Media

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) is introducing bipartisan legislation with several of his colleagues aiming to protect children from the harmful effects of social media. The Kids Off Social Media Act would set a minimum age of 13 to use social media platforms and prevent social media companies from feeding algorithmically-targeted content to users under the age of 17. Joining Senator King as original sponsors of the legislation are Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ted Budd (R-NC), John Fetterman (D-PA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ted Budd (R-NC), and Katie Britt (R-AL).

Studies have shown a strong relationship between social media use and poor mental health, especially among children. From 2019 to 2021, overall screen use among teens and tweens (ages 8 to 12) increased by 17 percent, with tweens using screens for five hours and 33 minutes per day and teens using screens for eight hours and 39 minutes. Based on the clear and growing evidence, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory last year, calling for new policies to set and enforce age minimums and highlighting the importance of limiting the use of features, like algorithms, that attempt to maximize time, attention, and engagement.

"America's youth should be protected from the harmful impacts of social media and from traumatic online content during their most formative years," said Senator King. "The bipartisan Kids off Social Media Act would establish reasonable guardrails and set a minimum age for users of social media to protect our children from tech companies exploiting and manipulating the youngest Americans. It would also require schools to block and filter social media access on federally funded Internet networks. Our children and grandchildren deserve to grow up without the damaging risks of social media and this legislation will take meaningful steps to protecting our youth from these impacts."

No age demographic is more affected by the post-pandemic mental health crisis in the United States than children, especially young girls. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 57 percent of high school girls and 29 percent of high school boys felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, with 22 percent of all high school students-and nearly a third of high school girls-reporting they had seriously considered attempting suicide in the preceding year.

To that end, the Kids Off Social Media Act would:

1. Prohibit children under the age of 13 from creating or maintaining social media accounts, consistent with the current practices of major social media companies;
2. Prohibit social media companies from pushing targeted content using algorithms to users under the age of 17;
3. Provide the FTC and state attorneys general authority to enforce the provisions of the bill; and
4. Follow existing CIPA framework to require schools to block and filter social media on their federally funded networks, which many schools already do.

Parents overwhelmingly support the mission of the Kids Off Social Media Act. A survey conducted by Count on Mothers shows that over 90 percent of mothers agree that there should be a minimum age of 13 for social media. Additionally, 87 percent of mothers agree that social media companies should not be allowed to use personalized recommendation systems to deliver content to children. Pew finds similar levels of concern from parents, reporting that 70 percent or more of parents worry that their teens are being exposed to explicit content or wasting too much time on social media, with two-thirds of parents saying that parenting is harder today compared to 20 years ago-and many of them cited social media as a contributing factor.

The bill is supported by the American Counseling Association, KidsToo, National Association of Social Workers, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, Tyler Clementi Foundation, National Council for Mental Wellbeing, Count on Mothers, Parents Television and Media Council, Parents Who Fight, Public Citizen, National Federation of Families, National Organization for Women, National Association of School Nurses, National League for Nursing, and American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Senator King has been a longstanding advocate of protecting children online. He previously cosponsored the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act-two pieces of legislation that set safeguards, require transparency reports, and protect children from the non-consensual collection of personal data that could be used to exploit or manipulate them.

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