Today, Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and other co-sponsors reintroduced the “Kids Off Social Media Act” (KOSMA) to ban minors under the age of 13 from using social media platforms. The bill also prohibits social media companies from recommending content to all users under the age of 17 and requires schools to limit social media on their networks. While this bill purports to protect minors, it primarily risks the privacy, safety, and First Amendment rights of children, including marginalized students who rely on school-provided internet access and devices to connect and communicate. Public Knowledge opposes this unnecessary invasion of children’s privacy and limiting of minor rights.
The following can be attributed to L’Allegro Smith, Government Affairs Policy Advocate at Public Knowledge:
“Banning children from social media platforms is completely antithetical to free expression and open access to information. This bill poses a lackadaisical, short-term approach to problems that would be better addressed through effective platform content moderation and comprehensive privacy protections – efforts that would benefit all Americans. Legislators should also increase access to platform data for researchers to limit the availability of dangerous content for minors, and should work to ensure a robust, competitive social media market that offers greater control to parents and their kids.
“It’s true that we need to do more to support the mental health of our children, but that can be achieved by creating safer social media channels for minors through better product design, and by enabling parents to limit kids’ screen time to curb any excessive social media use. This bill does neither – and protects no one.”
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