Senate committee advances Schatz-Cruz bill to set age limits for social media use

A Senate committee on Wednesday advanced a measure led by US Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) that aims to establish a minimum age of 13 for using social media platforms and that prevents social media companies from feeding algorithmically-targeted content to users under 17.

The Kids Off Social Media Act responds to the increasing concerns over the mental health crisis among children and young girls, referring to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

Specifically, 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 Kids Off Social Media Act is bipartisan legislation co-authored by US Sens. Schatz, Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.), with support from 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 bill now moves to the full Senate for consideration.