The legislation has support among both left and right-wing lawmakers.
ADVERTISEMENTThe US Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation meant to protect children from dangerous online content.
The bill, which passed 91-3, is the first major effort by US lawmakers to hold tech companies accountable for harm on these platforms.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who wrote the bill with Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, said the bill is about allowing children, teens and parents to take back control of their lives online.
"Our bill provides specific tools to stop Big Tech companies from driving toxic content at kids and to hold them accountable for putting profits over safety," said Blumenthal.
"Record levels of hopelessness and despair - a national teen mental health crisis - have been fueled by black box algorithms featuring eating disorders, bullying, suicidal thoughts, and more," he added in a statement.
The House of Representatives has not yet acted on the bill, but the Republican Speaker, Mike Johnson, has said he will look at the bill and try to find consensus.
US President Joe Biden encouraged the House to send the legislation to his desk "without delay".
Aims to make platforms 'safe by design'
The legislation, called the Kids Online Safety Act, was first introduced in February 2022.
It would require that social media platforms give minors options to protect their data, disable addictive features, and opt out of algorithmic recommendations.
It also makes the platforms responsible for preventing the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse and more to children online.
The idea, Blumenthal and Blackburn say, is for the platforms to be "safe by design".
The legislation requires social media platforms to perform an annual independent audit to assess the risk to minors.
Some tech companies, like Microsoft, X and Snap, are supporting the bill.
Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it supports the development of standards but it would instead prefer legislation to require app stores to get parents’ approval when teenagers download apps.
In a statement last week, Snap praised the bill and said in a statement that “the safety and well-being of young people on Snapchat is a top priority".
ADVERTISEMENTThe bill also includes an update to child privacy laws that prohibit online companies from collecting personal information from users under 13, raising that age to 17.
It would also ban targeted advertising to teenagers and allow teens or guardians to delete a minor’s personal information.
A global survey released earlier this year found that children want tech companies and governments to do more to protect them online.
This story was updated with the results of the vote.
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