* **Kids Off Social Media Act:** Aims to protect children and teenagers from the potential harms of social media by preventing children under 13 from creating social media accounts, restricting personalized recommendations, and updating internet safety policies for schools.
Brian Schatz
Senator
HI
The "Kids Off Social Media Act" aims to protect children and teenagers from the potential harms of social media by preventing children under 13 from creating social media accounts and restricting personalized recommendations for children and teens. The Act also updates the Children's Internet Protection Act to include social media platforms and mandates schools to monitor online activities. Finally, the Act includes a severability clause to ensure that if any part of the law is deemed invalid, the remaining provisions will still be valid and effective.
Under-13s Banned from Social Media, Schools to Block Platforms: Kids Off Social Media Act Kicks In Next Year
The "Kids Off Social Media Act" is a new bill that aims to do exactly what it says: keep kids under 13 off social media entirely, and limit how social media platforms can target teens. It's split into two main parts: the core rules about social media, and a section called the "Eyes on the Board Act" that focuses on schools.
Social Media Shutdown for the Under-13 Crowd
This bill straight-up prohibits kids under 13 from creating or keeping accounts on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat (Sec. 103). If a platform knows a user is under 13, they have to shut down the account and delete the kid's data (though the kid gets 90 days to download their stuff). The bill defines 'social media platform' (Sec. 102), but it excludes a lot of stuff - online shopping, video conferencing, encyclopedias, cloud storage, video games, news sites, and even email. This means kids can likely still use many online services, just not the ones primarily designed for social sharing and driven by advertising.
For example, a 10-year-old wouldn't be allowed to have a TikTok account, and if they did, TikTok would be legally required to delete it. However, that same 10-year-old could still use educational websites, play online games (without social features), and use email.
Algorithmic Tweaks for Teens
For teens (13-17), the bill bans platforms from using their personal data to power those personalized recommendation algorithms (Sec. 104). So, instead of an endless feed tailored to keep them scrolling, teens might see content in chronological order or based on simple things like their location or device. The bill does allow for search results and blocking of illegal stuff. Think of it like this: a 15-year-old might see posts from accounts they follow in the order they were posted, rather than having an algorithm decide what they see first.
Eyes on the Board: Social Media in Schools
The "Eyes on the Board Act" part of the bill (Sec. 202) tackles social media in schools. It updates the Children's Internet Protection Act, essentially saying that schools must block and monitor social media access on their networks to get certain federal broadband subsidies. This means schools will have to actively prevent students from using social media on school Wi-Fi and devices. There's an exception for teachers using social media for actual teaching, but the bill is pretty strict about schools needing to show they're making a "good faith effort" to comply.
For instance, a high school student using the school's Wi-Fi on their phone wouldn't be able to access Instagram during school hours. However, a teacher could still use a platform like YouTube (if it qualifies under the exceptions) to show educational videos in class.
The Big Picture and Potential Problems
This bill is trying to protect kids, but it also raises some eyebrows. The definitions of "social media platform" are pretty specific, and there might be loopholes. Plus, there are real questions about how schools will monitor student activity without getting too invasive, and how all this age verification will happen without creating more data privacy risks. It also overides any state laws that clashes with it, so state can create laws that offer stronger protections for children and teens (Sec. 107). The whole thing goes into effect one year after it's signed into law (Sec. 108), so there's time to figure out the details – and for companies to potentially find ways around it.