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U.S. Senator Katie Britt’s, R-Ala., bipartisan legislation to protect kids from the impacts of social media usage Wednesday passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Chairman of the committee, selected the Kids Off Social Media Act as the first legislative markup in the 119th Congress, showcasing Senate Republicans’ commitment to addressing effects of Big Tech.
Senators Cruz and Britt’s legislation 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. Senators Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., joined Senators Cruz and Britt in introducing the bill last week.
“Our country is in the throes of a mental health crisis, and the rise of social media usage among children and teenagers is inextricably tied to this problem,” said Senator Britt. “Putting in place commonsense guardrails to protect our kids from the dangers of social media is a first step to stop our worsening mental health crisis. I’m especially grateful to my colleague Senator Cruz for prioritizing our legislation in the Senate Commerce Committee—selecting it as the first bill for consideration in the 119th Congress.”
The Kids Off Social Media Act would prohibit social media platforms from allowing children under the age of 13 to create or maintain social media accounts; prohibit social media companies from pushing targeted content using algorithms to users under the age of 17; provide the FTC and state attorneys general authority to enforce the provisions of the bill; and follow existing CIPA framework, with changes, to require schools to work in good faith to limit social media on their federally-funded networks, which many schools already do.
“The Senate Commerce Committee’s approval of the Kids Off Social Media Act is an important step forward to safeguard our children’s futures, put parents back in the driver’s seat, and hold Big Tech accountable,” Senator Britt added. “Our legislation would enact commonsense, age-appropriate solutions to tackle this generational challenge. There is nothing more important than protecting America’s children. We can and we must push forward to get this bill through the Senate and ultimately to President Trump’s desk for signature.”
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.
No age demographic is more affected by the ongoing mental health crisis in the United States than kids, 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.
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 in 2023, 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.
In addition to Senators Britt, Schatz, Cruz, and Murphy, the Kids Off Social Media Act is cosponsored by Senators Peter Welch, D-Vt., Ted Budd, R-N.C., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Angus King, I-Maine, Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Curtis, R-Utah. The full text of the bill is available here.
