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Republican Senator Katie Britt (Ala.) is pushing hard for legislation that would restrict kids’ access to social media apps, drawing questions about how effective such a federal ban could be, and whether it would be either too restrictive or insufficient to squash cyber threats.
The “Kids Off Social Media Act,” a bipartisan bill supported by other lawmakers like Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Ted Budd, R-N.C., proposes setting a minimum age of 13 for children to use social media platforms.
It also proposes banning social media companies from using algorithms to target content or ads to users under the age of 17.
“The previous Surgeon General has said, kids shouldn’t be on social media until they’re 16,” Sen. Britt told Fox News on Wednesday. “Now is the time to act, but the truth is, Big Tech has a grip on Congress, and Congress’s inaction is feckless.”
According to Pew Research, U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 broadly recognize that social media has a “negative effect on people their age” (48 percent), and 45 percent “say they spend too much time on social media.”
Teen girls “are more likely than boys to say social media hurt their mental health,” but a large majority of teens still see social media as a “positive space for friendships and creativity” (74 percent).
Still, statistics are alarming. According to the internet safety organization “Enough is Enough,” teens are routinely exposed to nudity or pornographic content online (68 percent of tweens and 90 percent of teens), and a shocking 93 percent of teens have engaged in online conversations surrounding drugs and alcohol. Sexual exploitation and sex criminals also abound online, with horrific digital sextortion rings and instances of online grooming on the rise.
“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 in a statement earlier this year.
She continued, “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.”
Most social media apps, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X, already require users to be at least 13 to use their platforms. However, there is no official enforcement mechanism to ensure that kids are verifying their real age when they sign up.
It’s unclear how Sen. Britt’s legislation would enforce age verification for kids on social media, and it’s also broadly unclear how social media companies would define a targeted algorithm as being non-specifically marketed away from kids who are 17 or younger.