A bipartisan effort is now underway in US Congress to have another go at pushing the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA) through. The bill is designed to prevent children under 13 from using social media.
The legislation reintroduced by Republican Senators Katie Britt and Ted Cruz, along with Democrats Brian Schatz and Chris Murphy, also aims to stop platforms from showing personalized recommendations to teenagers under 17.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
The proposal does not explicitly mandate age verification, but the methods that would have to be deployed to implement such legislation were one of the reasons it failed last year.
Both rights advocates, Republican legislators, and the industry behind social media argued that KOSMA becoming law could violate free speech, and lead to tech companies harvesting more data than they do now in order to comply with legal requirements. Senator Schatz, however, is now denying this would be the case – the companies would collect no more than they do “in the normal course of business,” he said.
The bill explicitly states that it is not mandating platforms to have a “age gating or age verification functionality” but does not specify how else it expects platforms to ban under 17s without this type of digital ID technology.
Announcing the reintroduction of the bill, Senator Britt linked what she said was the US being “in the throws of a mental health crisis” with the minor’s use of social media. To Britt’s mind, these are “inextricably” tied.
Senator Cruz said that KOSMA would “support families in crisis” and “empower teachers to better manage their classrooms.” Senator Murphy addressed content recommendations in particular – which he called “addictive algorithms” and blamed for exposing children to “glorification” of suicide and other serious harms.
The solution to all this, according to the senators who have enlisted six others as co-sponsors, is in addition to the ban on creating and using social media accounts for those under 13 and on algorithms-driven recommendations targeting teens – give the FTC and state attorneys general authority to enforce the law.
The senators cite public opinion surveys that show parents are concerned about their children’s use of social media to support the intent behind the bill, as well as the backing it received from a number of associations gathering mental health workers, parents, etc.
The first attempt to push KOSMA failed amid worries expressed by the House Republican that it could wind up abused by Democrats, who would have enforced it (the FTC of the time), or suppress free speech without deliberately seeking to achieve that effect.
