From August 23, 2024, 2:29 p.m.
Social media has become a huge part of Americans’ lives. It’s a source of entertainment and information, a way to stay connected with friends and family, and a place to shop, do business, and advocate for causes we care about. But I don’t have to tell anyone that social media also has a dark side. Social media can have negative effects on mental health. It can encourage negative and divisive engagement and serve as an outlet for illegal activity. And it can be especially damaging to the still-developing psyches of teenagers.
In recent years, reports and whistleblowers have raised alarms about the impact of social media on young people. In 2021, the Wall Street Journal published a series of reports highlighting, among other things, Facebook’s knowledge of the harm its products can cause. This included its own investigation into the impact of Instagram on teenage girls. Another report revealed how easy it is for teens to be bombarded with inappropriate content on TikTok, a risk-ridden platform with flaws that go far beyond this. And many of us have also read tragic stories of eating disorders and suicides linked to social media. The status quo is unacceptable.
For several years, including my time as Chairman, I have worked with a number of my colleagues on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to address some of these issues. After years of hard work, the Senate recently passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act, which takes important steps to protect young Americans online.
This bill, sponsored by my colleague from Tennessee, Senator Marsha Blackburn, provides protections for youth by requiring that Big Tech platforms default to the strongest privacy settings for minors. It gives these platforms responsibility to prevent and mitigate harm to young people and prohibits internet companies from collecting personal information from minors without their consent. These and other measures in the bill are important steps to protect children online and hopefully reverse the negative effects of social media that we have seen too much of in recent years.
In addition to those provisions, I’m proud that this bill includes my Filter Bubble Transparency Act. A big problem with social media platforms is that those platforms can decide what information to show you based on a secret algorithm that you can’t see or change. Not all algorithms are bad—some can even be helpful, like YouTube queuing up a different song by your favorite band instead of something entirely different. But algorithms that expose a 15-year-old to inappropriate videos are problematic, to say the least. And unfortunately, consumers don’t always realize how much their experience is shaped by opaque algorithms.
The Filter Bubble Transparency Act gives control back to consumers and parents by requiring Big Tech platforms to disclose when they use an opaque algorithm, and it requires the platforms to give consumers the option to view content that is not curated by the secret algorithm. It provides consumers with more transparency and gives them more control over the content they interact with online. I’m pleased to see this bill moving forward along with other important measures in this bill.
As always, there is still much work to be done to update our laws for the age of social media. But the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act is an important step forward in protecting young Americans from dangers online. I hope the House of Representatives will take up this bill soon, and I will continue to work with my colleagues on this important issue.
