The US lags other countries in social media restrictions for kids, but a reform push is growing

Kaitlyn Huamani And Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press

Amy Neville describes Kristin Bride as her “soulmate.” But the day that forged their bond — June 23, 2020 — was the worst of each of their lives.

Both Bride and Neville lost their teen sons that day. Their kids lived a thousand miles apart and never met, but they both died from harms related to their social media use.

When the two mothers met, early in their advocacy work to protect other kids, Bride said she had felt “totally alone.” But they have since seen the online child safety movement blossom, with scores of other parents who lost kids pursuing stronger social media safeguards and legislation to protect children online.

With that momentum, advocates say the tide seems to be turning. A pair of landmark jury verdicts this year showed a way forward for holding tech companies accountable. And while the U.S. is nowhere near embracing social media bans for children like those seen from Australia to Indonesia, a push for regulation is simmering again in Congress.

“Moving forward for me, it’s this groundswell. We now have the court of public opinion on our side, and that is powerful. That has brought things to the next level,” Neville said in an interview.

Her son Alexander Neville was “brilliant and intense,” Neville said, with an entrepreneurial spirit and “the best laugh in the world.” When he was 14, a drug dealer connected with him on Snapchat and sold him the pill that killed him. Carson Bride was the “bright light” of his family, a funny and caring kid who loved connecting with people, his mother said. He died by suicide at age 16 after severe cyberbullying.

The teenagers were honored in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday alongside 270 other children and young people who died because of online harms. It was the sixth anniversary of the boys’ deaths, a date their families have worked to establish as Social Media Victims Remembrance Day.

Jury verdicts hold social media companies responsible for harms

Growing awareness of the dangers social media poses for young, developing brains has shown up in a wave of new restrictions globally. Australia, the U.K., Turkey, Indonesia and others have passed bans on kids under 16 or 15 from using platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

In the U.S., the movement turned a corner with two jury verdicts against Meta and one against Google that galvanized proponents for kids’ online safety. Evidence in the court cases revealed some of the tech companies’ inner workings, including communications of employees who likened their products to drugs and casinos.

That the Los Angeles trial accusing social media platforms of causing deliberate harm to children was allowed to move forward was itself a watershed movement, said Matthew Bergman, head of the Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents more than 1,000 plaintiffs in lawsuits against social media companies.

Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act shields tech companies from legal responsibility for posted content. It has been a barrier to accountability but lawsuits are side-stepping its protections by focusing on the companies’ deliberate design choices rather than content.

“It is still a hurdle, but it is no longer a barrier,” Bergman said.

Advocates say there’s a long road ahead

In the U.S., federal legislation of social media has moved at a glacial pace. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which took effect in 2000, requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parents’ consent before collecting personal information of children under 13.

This week, lawmakers in the House unveiled a bipartisan deal called the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act. It includes portions of the the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, which passed the Senate in 2024, but critics say it’s been stripped of its most important part — a provision called “duty of care,” a legal term that requires companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm.

“Without a duty of care, Big Tech companies will maintain the status quo of putting profit before the safety of our children,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a statement.

Bride said advocates have to employ a three-prong approach, utilizing legislation, litigation and education. That way, “when one stalls, like legislation,” Bride said, “then we have the trials and we have litigation. So we keep pressing forward. We’re not going to give up.”

Representatives from Meta, YouTube and TikTok did not immediately respond to messages for comment. Snap said in a written statement that it works continuously to strengthen safety protections across its platform.

Over the years, social media platforms have introduced some safety features including separating minors into teen accounts and providing even tighter restrictions for younger teenagers. Instagram, for instance, now restricts teen accounts to viewing content that aligns with “PG-13” ratings and accounts are set to private and can’t be messaged by strangers. YouTube has a separate kids app and parental controls on its regular platform that allow for “supervised kid accounts” for preteens who have aged out of YouTube kids.

But child advocates say there’s still a long way to go.

“Their fundamental incentive to design products that maximize engagement has not changed,” Bergman said. “Yes, there have been some improvements. A 13-year-old child is not by default provided with an open account for adult predators to prey upon. So, you know, there are baby steps, but there are steps in the right direction. We just need more of them.”

Senators say social media concerns are reaching a tipping point

Since 2024, the Senate has passed a resolution annually to recognize June 23 as Social Media Harms Victim Remembrance Day, which honors the lives of those who died because of online harms including suicide, drug poisoning, cyberbullying and dangerous social media challenges.

Alongside several parents and advocates who spoke at the event Tuesday evening — including Bride and Neville — senators called for urgent action.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., advocated for the repeal of Section 230. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said advocates and lawmakers need to “fight like hell for the living.” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., assailed his fellow Congress members for not doing more, saying “we all know why” they haven’t acted.

“It’s the same reason that the companies want the kids online, want their privacy destroyed, want all their information — it’s money,” Hawley said, noting the technology industry provides campaign contributions to lawmakers and spends millions on lobbying annually.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has invited the CEOs of Meta, Alphabet, TikTok and Snap to testify at an upcoming hearing about children’s safety on their platforms. The committee has suggested the U.S. is reaching a tipping point for awareness of the risks of social media, asking in the hearing title, “Is This Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment?”

Bride and Neville will attentively listen to what the tech CEOs say under oath — as they did during a similar hearing in 2024 and many other events related to kids online safety — and they remain optimistic.

Neville said she feels that “every morning I wake up, lives are on the line. If we’re not talking about these things, if we’re not doing something about it, lives are on line,” she said. “And that’s probably not good for my nervous system, but that’s the state that I’ll live in until I’ll probably die on this hill.”

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