The desire to limit the access of young people to social networks to protect them is one of the rare subjects on which elected Republicans and Democrats are working together in the United States.
At the beginning of April, the State of Idaho adopted a law requiring social networks to verify the age of their users, and, for those under 16, to obtain their parents’ consent and to deactivate certain features, such as automatic reading and infinite scrolling of content. It joins Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Nebraska, which all have similar laws.
An additional 18 states are actively trying to reduce minors’ access to the web, and 11 more are debating it. For a long time a digital Wild West (for example, the country does not have a federal law on data protectionsuch as the GDPR, or on the regulation of AI), the United States is gradually imposing an increasingly restrictive framework in order to protect young Internet users, much to the dismay of Silicon Valley.
A subject that unites Republicans and Democrats
Of numerous studies point out the damage caused by the use of smartphones on the mental health of young people. Many adolescents suffer from anxiety, sleep problems and depression. Other studies show similar damage caused by the use of social networks. In this context, the desire to protect the young public against this impact constitutes one of the rare subjects which unites elected Republicans and Democrats on the other side of the Atlantic. If the states which have adopted laws in this area are all led by Republicans, a number of Democratic states are also working on this subject, like California, Minnesota and Massachusetts.
Also at the federal level, the two parties are working together to put in place legislation that covers the entire country. Several initiatives have been put in place. The oldest is the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Debate in the Senate since 2022, the bill is led by Richard Blumenthal, Democratic senator from Connecticut, to the left of the Democratic Party, and Marsha Blackburn, ultraconservative Republican senator from Tennessee.
It aims to force online platforms such as Facebook, Google, Instagram and TikTok to take measures to combat a certain number of ills likely to affect young audiences, including cyberharassment, erotic content, the sale of drugs, or anything that promotes dangerous behavior (anorexia, challenges such as the scarf game, promotion of suicide, etc.). The platforms would thus be encouraged to filter certain content likely to harm the mental health of young Internet users to prevent them from accessing it, or even to delete it. Those who fail in their duty are liable to prosecution. Voted by a clear majority by the Senate in July 2024, the law has so far failed to gather a majority in the House of Representatives.
The other big bill is the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA). For his part, he proposes prohibiting those under 13 from creating an account on social networks and restricting personalized recommendation algorithms for users under 17. It has not yet been submitted to a vote in the Senate, nor in the House of Representatives. He is also supported by two figures at opposite ends of the political spectrum: Republican senator from Texas Ted Cruz and Brian Schatz, Democratic senator from Hawaii.
Finally, a final project, the Gaming Advertisement to Minors Enforcement Act, has just been introduced. It more specifically targets advertisements for online betting sites, with the aim of banning those which target Internet users under 18 years of age. The law is championed by Katie Britt, a Republican senator from Alabama, and the same Richard Blumenthal who is behind KOSA.
Blockages
It may seem surprising that one of the rare areas of agreement between the two major American parties has not led to the passing of a federal law in this direction despite years of efforts. But the subject also has its share of opponents, not the least of which, led by Silicon Valley. The web giants have formed pressure groups to convince elected representatives in Congress of the ineffectiveness or counterproductive nature of these laws, and to mount legal actions to challenge the legality of state regulations, often successfully. like in Texas. It is also the lobbying of big tech which slowed down the progress of KOSA in the House of Representatives despite an initial favorable vote in the Senate.
The tech giants notably have a strong ally in the form of the First Amendment, which protects Americans’ freedom of expression against government censorship. On the one hand, these companies argue that laws aimed at restricting minors’ access to online platforms, such as KOSMA and various state laws, hinder minors’ freedom of expression. On the other hand, laws that, like KOSA, require platforms to protect minors, with language vague enough to potentially encompass all kinds of content designated as “dangerous or “stressful”, risk encouraging the latter to be heavy-handed when it comes to censorship.
By relying on the First Amendment and posing as defenders of freedom of expression, the tech giants also manage to bring together both sides of the political spectrum. On the one hand, we find, for example, LGBT associations which affirm that social networks constitute, for young members of this community who grow up in conservative environments, the only way to access informational content and to exchange with people who are like them. On the other hand, more conservative lobbies who believe that the government should not decide in place of parents whether or not their children can access social networks, or who fear that restrictions for minors will serve as a pretext to censor content for adults.
A dilemma for the Trump administration
The Trump administration has thus far been reluctant to move forward on this issue, precisely because it highlights important fault lines within the MAGA coalition. On one side, conservative Christian elected officials like Marsha Blackburn and Ted Cruz who are worried about the harmful impact of the web and social networks on minors, and populists, like Vice-President JD Vance, who criticize the excessive power of Big Tech.
On the other, libertarians who champion free speech, like Senator Rand Paul and billionaire Peter Thiel, and Silicon Valley sponsors who spend without counting to put the Republican majority in their pocket. In December, American Secretary of State Marco Rubio banned Clara Melford, general director of the Global Disinformation Index, particularly involved in the protection of minors online, as well as three other European Internet security activists, from entering the United States. On this subject, it is therefore the techno-libertarian fringe of the coalition which seems to be setting the pace for the moment.
