Sponsors (15)
Introduced January 28, 2025 by Brian Emanuel Schatz · Last progress January 28, 2025
The bill strengthens protections for children online and increases school‑level controls and federal oversight, but it imposes compliance costs, reduces personalization that teens rely on, and creates implementation and legal burdens for schools, libraries, platforms, and states.
Parents and children (under 17): the bill blocks account creation for under‑13s and limits use of personalized recommendation systems for under‑17 users, reducing exposure to targeted or algorithmically amplified content and ads.
Families of minors: platforms must delete personal data from terminated child accounts (with a limited 90‑day access window), giving parents greater control over minors' information.
Consumers and states: the bill creates federal (FTC) enforcement and preserves state parens patriae authority to pursue violations, increasing oversight and potential remedies for harmed residents.
Teens (13–16) and parents: reducing personalized features and social discovery for younger users will make platforms less usable or appealing for teens, diminishing the user experience and social connectivity.
Platform operators, tech workers, and downstream users: compliance will require engineering, verification, and data‑retention changes that raise costs and could be passed to users or reduce services.
Parents and children: platforms may reduce features for younger users or exit certain services that target youth, potentially limiting free or low‑cost offerings that depend on ad revenue.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Bans children under 13 from covered social media accounts, requires platforms to delete their data, and conditions E‑rate discounts on schools blocking student access to social media on supported networks/devices.
Prohibits children under age 13 from having accounts on covered social media platforms, requires platforms to terminate accounts they know belong to children and delete the children's personal data (with a limited 90‑day window for data retrieval where technically feasible), and names the Federal Trade Commission to implement those rules. Conditions E‑rate discounts for elementary and secondary schools on a certification that the school blocks or filters student access to social media on supported services, devices, and networks, and directs the FCC to adopt rules, create a public database of Internet safety policies, and enforce compliance with remedies for knowing violations.