Kids Off Social Media Act Bans Under-13 Accounts and Algorithmic Feeds for All Teens

This bill, officially titled the Kids Off Social Media Act, is a major overhaul of how social media platforms can interact with minors. It’s designed to put up guardrails for anyone under 18, focusing on two main areas: outright bans for the youngest users and algorithmic restrictions for teens. The core of the law takes effect one year after enactment, giving platforms time to adjust.

The No-Kids-Allowed Policy

Title I of the bill sets a hard line: if a social media platform knows a user is under 13 years old, they are banned from creating or keeping an account (Sec. 103). If the platform finds out a user is a child, they must terminate the account immediately and delete all personal data collected from that user. The only data they can keep is a basic record needed to prove they complied with the law. For parents, this is a clear signal that platforms are now legally obligated to remove their youngest users.

Turning Off the Algorithm for Teens

For teenagers—defined here as anyone aged 13 through 16—the bill doesn't ban access, but it fundamentally changes the experience. Section 104 prohibits social media platforms from using a "personalized recommendation system" on teens. This means no more feeds tailored to maximize engagement based on their personal data, viewing history, or clicks. This is a massive shift, forcing platforms to use only basic data points like city, language, or device type for any recommendations. If a teen follows someone, the content must be shown in simple chronological order, not based on a manipulative algorithm. Think of it as switching from an endless, personalized TikTok feed to a much simpler, firehose-style stream. This change could significantly reduce the addictive nature of these platforms for young people, but it also means teens lose the highly curated experience they’re used to.

The Enforcement Catch: No Mandatory Age Checks

Here’s where the rubber meets the road on enforcement. The FTC and state attorneys general are empowered to sue platforms that violate these rules (Sec. 106). However, the bill explicitly states that platforms are not required to implement new age verification tools or start collecting new personal information to determine age (Sec. 105). Instead, the FTC must rely on whether the platform "should reasonably have known" the user was a minor based on existing information. This is a crucial detail: while the goal is to keep kids off, the law avoids forcing companies to collect sensitive identification data, which is a win for privacy advocates. But it also creates a potential loophole, as platforms may argue they had no reasonable way to know a child lied about their age.

Schools Must Block Social Media Access

Title II, the “Eyes on the Board Act of 2025,” directly impacts schools. If a school receives federal discounts for internet services (the E-Rate program), they now have a new compliance hurdle (Sec. 202). They must certify that they are actively monitoring their networks and using filtering technology to block student access to social media platforms. For schools, this means a new administrative burden and a risk of losing federal funding if they fail to enforce the blocking policies. Libraries, however, are specifically exempted from this new blocking requirement. For students, this means if they’re using a school-issued device or school Wi-Fi, they can expect social media access to be cut off, even outside of classroom instruction time, unless a teacher is using it for a specific educational purpose.