Building a safer, healthier online world for children and teens

The problem:

We are in the midst of a national epidemic of depression, anxiety, and loneliness among children and teens. Big Tech companies have designed social media to maximize profit without regard to the impact — and they do so by exploiting our children’s anxieties and keeping their attention longer. This issue is deeply personal for Americans and people are especially concerned about the negative mental health impact of social media on our children.

• Fifty-two percent of Americans across party lines (47% Republicans, 55% Democrats) believe that children’s addictive relationship with social media makes them worse at interacting with people face-to-face.
• Forty-eight percent (53% Republicans, 49% Democrats) believe it weakens children’s ability to think for themselves, robbing them of their social skills and innocence.
• An alarming 64% of those ages 18-29 have been or know someone who has been harmed by social media.

Parents are doing all they can to combat the addictive nature of social media. But they can’t do it alone. Congress must finally put responsible safeguards on social media to protect the well-being of children online.

Solution: 

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA, S.1409) directly addresses the harmful social media business model by placing the health and wellbeing of our children over advertising revenue. Among its major provisions, KOSA:

• Requires the platforms to affirmatively mitigate key harms — addiction, bullying, sexual exploitation, and the sale of illicit drugs to minor — through their design and operations.
• Gives kids and parents tools to protect their private information.
• Disables addictive product features.
• Allows minors to opt out of manipulative algorithmic recommendations.
• Enables the strongest safety settings by default.
• Holds online platforms accountable through annual, independent auditing.

In a time of partisan division, KOSA is a strongly bipartisan proposal. The bill comes from Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and currently has a broad, bipartisan number of cosponsors in the Senate, as well as the support of President Biden. In July 2023, KOSA was advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously. KOSA is currently awaiting a vote before the entire Senate.

Learn more about KOSA and our social media reform work.