HR7399-119

What This Bill Does

The Kids Off Social Media Act defines covered social media platforms as ad- or data-driven public forums for user-generated content, while excluding commerce sites, videoconferencing, encyclopedias, cloud collaboration, video games, news and entertainment services, reviews, educational systems, email, direct wireless messaging, broadband access, and VPNs. Covered platforms may not allow accounts for known children under 13, must terminate known child accounts, delete personal data while preserving a limited compliance record, and provide a 90-day portable data-copy window when feasible. Platforms may not use personal data in personalized recommendation systems for known children or teens except for limited data such as device type, language, city, child/teen status, and age, while preserving search, security, unlawful-content, spam, and chronological-follow exceptions. The bill uses Federal Trade Commission unfair-or-deceptive-practice enforcement, state attorney general suits, conflict-only preemption, stronger state protections, and CIPA updates requiring E-rate schools to certify social-media blocking policies, monitoring, technology protection measures, Federal Communications Commission rules, and public internet-safety-policy databases.

Who Benefits and How

Children under 13 benefit from account termination and data deletion rules; teens benefit from limits on algorithmic feeds based on personal data; parents and student privacy advocates gain enforcement leverage against covered platforms. The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission gain clearer authority over platform conduct and school broadband subsidy conditions. Schools, local educational agencies, and libraries benefit from explicit carveouts for learning management systems, teacher instructional use, educational services, COPPA, FERPA, and stronger state protections.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Social media companies must identify known child users based on competent evidence, terminate child accounts, delete data, provide portable data copies, stop most personalized recommendations for known children and teens, limit age-compliance data use and retention, and face Federal Trade Commission and state attorney general enforcement. Schools and local educational agencies using E-rate support must certify social-media blocking policies, monitor supported services, operate technology protection measures, and risk subsidy loss or reimbursement if they knowingly fail to comply. The Federal Communications Commission must amend rules, administer certifications, and maintain a public internet-safety-policy database.

Key Provisions

• Defines covered social media platforms and excludes commerce, videoconferencing, cloud collaboration, games, news, education, email, direct messaging, broadband, and VPN services.
• Prohibits known children under 13 from creating or maintaining social media accounts and requires termination, data deletion, and portable data access after termination.
• Restricts personalized recommendation systems for known children and teens while preserving search, safety, anti-spam, crime-prevention, and chronological-follow exceptions.
• Authorizes Federal Trade Commission and state attorney general enforcement and preserves stronger state child and teen protections.
• Requires E-rate schools to certify social-media blocking policies, monitoring, and technology protection measures, with Federal Communications Commission rules and a public internet-safety-policy database.