II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1291 To require that social media platforms verify the age of their users, prohibit the use of algorithmic recommendation systems on individuals under age 18, require parental or guardian consent for social media users under age 18, and prohibit users who are under age 13 from accessing social media platforms. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 26, 2023 Mr. SCHATZ (for himself, Mr. COTTON, Mr. MURPHY, and Mrs. BRITT) intro- duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To require that social media platforms verify the age of their users, prohibit the use of algorithmic recommenda- tion systems on individuals under age 18, require paren- tal or guardian consent for social media users under age 18, and prohibit users who are under age 13 from accessing social media platforms. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Kids on 4 Social Media Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1291 IS SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1 In this Act: 2 (1) ALGORITHMIC RECOMMENDATION SYS- 3 TEM.—The term ‘‘algorithmic recommendation sys- 4 tem’’ means a fully or partially automated system 5 that suggests, promotes, or ranks information for, or 6 presents advertising to, an individual. 7 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 8 means the Federal Trade Commission. 9 (3) INDIVIDUAL.—The term ‘‘individual’’ means 10 a social media platform user who habitually resides 11 in the United States. 12 (4) MINOR.—The term ‘‘minor’’ means an indi- 13 vidual who is at least 13 years of age but under 18 14 years of age. 15 (5) PERSONAL DATA.—The term ‘‘personal 16 data’’ means information that identifies or is linked 17 or reasonably linkable to an individual, household, or 18 consumer device. 19 (6) SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM.—The term ‘‘so- 20 cial media platform’’ means an online application or 21 website that— 22 (A) offers services to users in the United 23 States; 24 (B) allows users to create accounts to pub- 25 lish or distribute to the public or to other users 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1291 IS text, images, videos, or other forms of media 1 content; and 2 (C) provides the functions described in 3 paragraph (B) other than in support of— 4 (i) facilitating commercial trans- 5 actions; 6 (ii) facilitating teleconferencing and 7 videoconferencing features that are limited 8 to certain participants in the teleconference 9 or videoconference and are not posted pub- 10 licly or for broad distribution to other 11 users; 12 (iii) facilitating subscription-based 13 content or newsletters; 14 (iv) facilitating crowd-sourced content 15 for reference guides such as encyclopedias 16 and dictionaries; 17 (v) providing cloud-based electronic 18 storage, including cloud-based storage that 19 allows collaborative editing by invited 20 users; 21 (vi) making video games available for 22 play by users; 23 (vii) reporting or disseminating news; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1291 IS (viii) providing other kinds of infor- 1 mation concerning businesses, products, or 2 travel information, including user reviews 3 or rankings of such businesses, products, 4 or other travel information; 5 (ix) providing educational information 6 or instruction on behalf of or in support of 7 an elementary school or secondary school, 8 as such terms are defined in section 8101 9 of the Elementary and Secondary Edu- 10 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801); 11 (x) facilitating electronic mail or di- 12 rect messaging between users (except for 13 message boards or applications where users 14 can add themselves to messaging groups 15 consisting of large numbers of users) con- 16 sisting of text, photos, or videos that are 17 not posted publicly and are visible only to 18 the senders and recipients; or 19 (xi) any other function that provides 20 content to end users but does not allow the 21 dissemination of user-generated content. 22 SEC. 3. REASONABLE STEPS FOR AGE VERIFICATION. 23 (a) IN GENERAL.—A social media platform shall take 24 reasonable steps beyond merely requiring attestation, tak- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1291 IS ing into account existing age verification technologies, to 1 verify the age of individuals who are account holders on 2 the platform. 3 (b) RESTRICTION ON USE AND RETENTION OF IN- 4 FORMATION.—A social media platform shall not— 5 (1) use any information collected as part of the 6 platform’s age verification process for any other pur- 7 pose; or 8 (2) retain any information collected from a user 9 as part of the age verification process except to the 10 extent necessary to prove that the platform has 11 taken reasonable steps to verify the age of the user. 12 (c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 13 tion shall be construed to require a social media platform 14 to require users to provide government-issued identifica- 15 tion for age verification. 16 (d) EXISTING ACCOUNTS.—A social media platform 17 shall not be required to verify the age of account holders 18 on the platform for any account that, as of the date of 19 enactment of this Act, has existed for 90 days or more, 20 until 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act. 21 (e) UNVERIFIED ACCOUNTS.—A social media plat- 22 form shall not permit an individual to create a user ac- 23 count (or continue to use an existing user account after 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1291 IS the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of 1 this Act) if the individual’s age has not been verified. 2 (f) SAFE HARBOR.—A social media platform that, for 3 age verification purposes, relies in good faith on informa- 4 tion provided by the Pilot Program described in section 5 7 to verify the age of a user shall be deemed to have taken 6 reasonable steps to verify the age of that user on the plat- 7 form. 8 SEC. 4. NO CHILDREN UNDER 13. 9 A social media platform shall not permit an individual 10 to use the platform (other than merely viewing content, 11 as long as such viewing does not involve logging in or 12 interacting with the content or other users) unless the in- 13 dividual is known or reasonably believed to be age 13 or 14 older according to the age verification process used by the 15 platform. 16 SEC. 5. PARENT OR GUARDIAN CONSENT FOR MINORS. 17 (a) IN GENERAL.—A social media platform shall take 18 reasonable steps beyond merely requiring attestation, tak- 19 ing into account current parent or guardian relationship 20 verification technologies and documentation, to require the 21 affirmative consent of a parent or guardian to create an 22 account for any individual who the social media platform 23 knows or reasonably believes to be a minor according to 24 the age verification process used by the platform. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1291 IS (b) RESTRICTION ON USE AND RETENTION OF IN- 1 FORMATION.—A social media platform shall not— 2 (1) use any information collected as part of the 3 parent or guardian consent process for any other 4 purpose; or 5 (2) retain any information collected as part of 6 the parent or guardian verification process except to 7 the extent necessary to— 8 (A) provide confirmation of the affirmative 9 consent of a parent or guardian for a minor 10 user to create an account; 11 (B) preserve the ability of the parent or 12 guardian to revoke such consent; and 13 (C) prove that the platform has taken rea- 14 sonable steps to obtain the affirmative consent 15 of a parent or guardian for a minor user to cre- 16 ate an account. 17 (c) ABILITY TO REVOKE CONSENT.—A social media 18 platform shall take reasonable steps to provide a parent 19 or guardian who has consented to their child’s social 20 media use with the ability to revoke such consent. 21 (d) EFFECT OF REVOCATION OF CONSENT.—A social 22 media platform that receives a revocation of consent under 23 subsection (c) shall suspend, delete, or otherwise disable 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 1291 IS the account of the minor user for whom consent was re- 1 voked. 2 (e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 3 tion shall be construed to require a social media platform 4 to require minor users or their parents or guardians to 5 provide government-issued identification for relationship 6 verification or the provision of affirmative consent to cre- 7 ate an account. 8 (f) SAFE HARBOR.—A social media platform that, for 9 parent or guardian relationship verification purposes, re- 10 lies in good faith on information provided by the Pilot Pro- 11 gram described in section 7 shall be deemed to have taken 12 reasonable steps to verify the parent or guardian relation- 13 ship of the parent or guardian granting consent for a 14 minor user to create an account under this section. 15 SEC. 6. PROHIBITION ON THE USE OF ALGORITHMIC REC- 16 OMMENDATION SYSTEMS ON TEENS UNDER 17 18. 18 (a) IN GENERAL.—A social media platform shall not 19 use the personal data of an individual in an algorithmic 20 recommendation system unless the platform knows or rea- 21 sonably believes that the individual is age 18 or older ac- 22 cording to the age verification process used by the plat- 23 form. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 1291 IS (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—The prohibition in 1 subsection (a) shall not be construed to prevent the sug- 2 gestion of information or provision of advertising to an 3 individual based on context where the information or ad- 4 vertising is related to the content being viewed by the indi- 5 vidual, as long as such information is suggested or adver- 6 tising is provided solely based on context and is not tar- 7 geted or recommended based on personal data of the indi- 8 vidual. 9 SEC. 7. SECURE DIGITAL IDENTIFICATION CREDENTIAL 10 PILOT PROGRAM. 11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 12 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce 13 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall estab- 14 lish a pilot program (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Pilot 15 Program’’) for providing a secure digital identification cre- 16 dential to individuals who are citizens and lawful residents 17 of the United States at no cost to the individual. 18 (b) PILOT PROGRAM PARAMETERS.—The Pilot Pro- 19 gram shall do the following: 20 (1) Allow individuals to verify their age, or their 21 parent or guardian relationship with a minor user, 22 by uploading copies of government-issued and other 23 forms of identification (such as records issued by an 24 educational institution), or by validating the authen- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •S 1291 IS ticity of identity information provided by the indi- 1 vidual using electronic records of State departments 2 of motor vehicles, the Internal Revenue Service, the 3 Social Security Administration, State agencies re- 4 sponsible for vital records, or other governmental or 5 professional records providers that the Secretary de- 6 termines are able to reliably assist in the verification 7 of identity information. 8 (2) Meet or exceed the highest cybersecurity 9 standards expected of secure consumer products 10 such as financial or healthcare records or that are 11 required to obtain access to government systems. 12 (3) Provide users with the ability to— 13 (A) obtain a secure digital identification 14 credential that they may use to verify their age 15 or parent or guardian relationship with enrolled 16 social media platforms; and 17 (B) control what data they choose to allow 18 the pilot program to share with a social media 19 platform, without sharing copies of the under- 20 lying verification documents or any information 21 that the user does not affirmatively agree to 22 share with those social media platforms. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •S 1291 IS (4) Not retain copies of underlying govern- 1 mental records after verifying the information pro- 2 vided by the user. 3 (5) Provide users with the ability to disable or 4 delete their secure digital identification credential 5 and any associated records kept by the Pilot Pro- 6 gram at any time. 7 (6) Keep no records of the social media plat- 8 forms where users have verified their identity using 9 a secure digital identification credential, other than 10 aggregate data that is anonymized so that it cannot 11 be linked to individual users. 12 (c) ACCESS.—Information regarding individual users 13 of the Pilot Program shall be confidential, and no officer 14 or employee of the United States, or any other person who 15 has or had access to such information due to their involve- 16 ment with the Pilot Program, shall disclose any such infor- 17 mation to any entity, including law enforcement agencies, 18 except— 19 (1) with the consent of the user; 20 (2) in connection with oversight by an Inspector 21 General related to the proper implementation of this 22 Act; 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1291.IS S1291 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 12 •S 1291 IS (3) in connection with an investigation into a 1 user for committing fraud against the Pilot Pro- 2 gram; or 3 (4) pursuant to a court order. 4 (d) VOLUNTARY PROGRAM.—The Pilot Program de- 5 scribed in subsection (a) shall be voluntary, and nothing 6 in this Act shall be construed to require any individual 7 or social media platform to use the Pilot Program. 8 (e) SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM ENROL [Text truncated for display. 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