Lawmakers’ efforts to limit the use of social media by kids are continuing into 2025 with the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA). The bill, which would prevent kids under 13 from creating social media accounts, advanced through the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, as reported earlier by Politico.
Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the bill, positioning it as a way to curb the “unprecedented mental health crisis” affecting young people. Along with restricting kids’ access to social media, it would also prevent companies from using recommendation algorithms for users under 17, while requiring schools to “limit social media on their networks.” The bill would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the ability to enforce these rules.
Instead of forcing users to present a form of ID to verify their age or requiring parental consent, KOSMA would ask social platforms to use existing data about users to estimate their age — an age verification method that likely won’t always get things right.
“The guessing is going to be, in some measure, inaccurate,” Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in an interview with New York University about this form of age verification. “And even if that measure is like by percentages, very small, that’s still millions of people, lots of people who are going to be misjudged.”
In response to heightened scrutiny of child safety online, Meta launched tools to scan for “signals” that someone may be lying about their age. Lawmakers are trying to take things into their own hands, with new bills cropping up across the US and some coming into effect. Senator Brian Schatz says KOSMA is meant to “complement” the federal Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), both of which the Senate passed last year.
NetChoice, the trade association backed by Meta, Amazon, Google, Snap, and others, is pushing back against KOSMA, saying the bill “creates serious cybersecurity risks, undermines parental rights and autonomy and violates the Constitution.” The trade association has taken legal action against similar legislation, and in many cases, it has successfully blocked laws from taking effect.
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