Bipartisan bill reportedly set to place age limits on social media
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A bipartisan Senate bill is reportedly set to be one of the first big efforts to keep younger children off social media entirely.
Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz and Republican Sen. Tom Cotton are set to introduce a bill that would implement age restrictions on access to social media as well as on how the companies use algorithms to serve information to minors, The Washington Post
reported.
It would block children under 13 entirely from accessing social media like Instagram (NASDAQ:META), TikTok (BDNCE), Snap (NYSE:SNAP), and Pinterest -- and call for parental consent for those aged 13-17, according to the report. It has co-sponsors in Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy and Republican Sen. Katie Boyd Britt.
The bill would build on previous proposals that would keep children under 16 off social media entirely, though those Republican proposals have yet to get support from Democrats, the Post said.
Several platforms at least nominally already block users under 13. That includes TikTok (BDNCE) and Twitter (TWTR), though other platforms like YouTube (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) instead offer more protective versions of their platform (YouTube Kids).
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