To prohibit certain platforms from allowing minors to create or maintain an account or profile on such platforms, and for other proposes.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMrs. Houchin introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Summary
What This Bill Does:
The RESET Act (Reducing Exploitative Social Media Exposure for Teens Act) bans social media platforms from allowing anyone under 16 to create or maintain an account. Platforms must identify and terminate existing accounts belonging to minors, with a timeline that gives users notice before their accounts are deleted.
Who Benefits and How:
Parents and guardians benefit by having a legal mechanism to keep their children off mainstream social media platforms. Age verification technology companies stand to gain significant business as platforms must now verify user ages. Companies that create kid-friendly alternative platforms could see increased demand as minors are pushed off mainstream social media.
Who Bears the Burden and How:
Major social media platforms like Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, X, and YouTube face substantial compliance costs: they must implement age verification systems, identify existing minor accounts, and manage account termination processes. The digital advertising industry loses access to the under-16 demographic. The FTC and state attorneys general take on new enforcement responsibilities. Minors themselves lose access to platforms they currently use.
Key Provisions:
- Platforms must terminate known minor accounts within 270 days (60 days to identify, 180 to notify, 30 more to terminate)
- Personal data of terminated minor accounts must be deleted, but minors have 90 days to request a copy
- Violations are treated as FTC Act violations with civil penalties
- State attorneys general can sue platforms on behalf of residents
- State laws on this topic are preempted (federal law takes precedence)
- Effective date is 1 year after enactment
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Prohibits social media platforms from allowing individuals under 16 to create or maintain accounts, requiring platforms to identify, notify, and terminate existing minor accounts within specified timeframes.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Protect minors from social media harms by outright banning their presence on covered platforms, with FTC enforcement and state attorney general authority"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Parents and guardians of minors
- Child safety advocacy groups
- Companies developing age-verification technology
- Alternative platforms for minors
Likely Burden Bearers
- Social media platforms (Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, X, etc.)
- Minors under 16 who use social media
- Federal Trade Commission (enforcement burden)
- State attorneys general (enforcement capacity)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_commission"
- → Federal Trade Commission
- "covered_platform"
- → Social media platforms as defined in the TAKE IT DOWN Act (Public Law 119-12)
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The Federal Trade Commission
Has the meaning given that term in section 4 of the TAKE IT DOWN Act (Public Law 119-12; 47 U.S.C. 223a note)
To have actual knowledge or to have acted in willful disregard
An individual under the age of 16
Has the meaning given the term 'personal information' in section 1302 of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501)
An individual who creates or maintains an account or profile on the covered platform
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology