Senators debut bipartisan legislation to keep kids under 13 off social media

U.S. Senators Brian Schatz, D-Hawai’i, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Katie Britt R-Ala. introduced new legislation to help protect children from the harmful impacts of social media. The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act would set a minimum age of 13 to use social media apps and would require parental consent for 13 through17 year-olds. The bill would also prevent social media companies from feeding content using algorithms to users under the age of 18. "The growing evidence is clear: social media is making kids more depressed and wreaking havoc on their mental health. While kids are suffering, social media companies are profiting. This needs to stop," said Senator Schatz. "Our bill will help us stop the growing social media health crisis among kids by setting a minimum age and preventing companies from using algorithms to automatically feed them addictive content based on their personal information." "From bullying and sex trafficking to addiction and explicit content, social media companies subject children and teens to a wide variety of content that can hurt them, emotionally and physically. Just as parents safeguard their kids from threats in the real world, they need the opportunity to protect their children online. By setting an age limit of 13-and requiring parental consent until age 18-our bill will put parents back in control of what their kids experience online," said Senator Cotton. Companies in the social media space include: Snap (SNAP), Spotify (SPOT), Meta Platforms (META), Pinterest (PINS), Spotify (SPOT)and TikTok.Reference Link