U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) wants to shelter kids from the harmful effects of social media.
On Wednesday, he announced that he is co-sponsoring a bill that requires parental permission for users under 18 and keeps kids younger than 13 off the apps completely.
The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act already has bipartisan support from lawmakers, and Murphy said Connecticut residents want the change.
“I see very little, if any disagreement between my constituents on the right and on the left when it comes to the agony the parents are going through today as they try to figure out what their kids are seeing and what their kids are being addicted to online,” Murphy said.
The bill would also ban the use of algorithms to promote content to kids.
Murphy said he sees the impacts of social media algorithms in his own children.
“I've watched with this combination of wonder and worry and anxiety as I've seen both my children be subjected to these algorithms that are intent on addicting them to their screens, and pulling them away from a much more fulfilling and meaningful connection to their family and to their peers.”
The bill is led by Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and co-sponsored by Murphy and Senator Katie Boyd Britt (R-Alabama).
The lawmakers said they will leave it to the companies to figure out how to conduct age verifications.
“Companies like ID.me are used by the Social Security Administration or the VA,” Cotton said. “They're used by states as politically diverse as Wyoming and California for things like gambling and lottery, or other kinds of online activity. We do age verification routinely. So it's simply not a serious argument that we cannot do online age verification for social media companies, just like we do in so many other settings in the digital world.”
