Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, is co-sponsoring legislation designed to protect minors online.
The Kids Online Safety Act seeks to hold tech companies responsible for the content on their platforms and give parents the ability to control what their children view online. Platforms include social media.
In this bill, online platforms would be required to provide minors with the ability to hide their information, remove addictive product features and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations.
The bill would also enable parents to have new controls by providing a reporting channel to report harmful behaviors. Recent reports have highlighted the failure of online platforms to keep children safe from harmful content. In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta’s AI-powered chatbot had sexually explicit conversations with minors. The following month, Bloomberg detailed how Instagram recommended child groomers connect with minors who were using its app.
