Ossoff-sponsored bill targets social media's influence on children

ATLANTA - A bill sponsored by Sen. Jon Ossoff, of Georgia, would limit how social media companies can target children.  

"Better late than never," said Emory University marketing professor and social media expert David Schweidel about the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act.  

The U.S. Senate recently passed the bill with an overwhelming majority of 91-3. 

"I’m glad to see bipartisan action by Congress on something that I think we can all agree is something that we now have to be concerned about," Schweidel said.  

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The bill would do several things to try and protect kids from the dangers of social media, including:  

• Banning companies from collecting and selling children’s data
• Activating the most protective settings on children's accounts by default
• Requiring social media companies to allow children to disable addictive features on the platforms
• Addressing those addictive features is something chief parenting officer at Bark Technologies, Titania Jordan, praises the bill for.

"So, if we can make these platforms less addictive, [children] can spend less time in-app in front of a screen and more time with each other in real life moving their bodies, if they're physically able to do so, and enjoying what a true childhood should look like," Jordan said.  

She says there’s a lot this bill doesn’t address.  

"This bill is wonderful, but it's not comprehensive if we really want to keep kids safer online fully. Because it doesn't address empowering parents as much as it could," she said.  

Jordan says she wishes the bill would also require social media companies to give parents more control over their children’s accounts.  

Right now, she says, many children can easily get around parental controls.  

"Because of the increased scrutiny and pressure, apps like TikTok have rolled out settings that allow you to link a child's account to a parent's account. Which sounds great until you dig in or actually use it like I have. And your child can just unlink it, which negates the whole purpose of it," Jordan said.  

Schweidel says the bill doesn’t specifically outline which addictive features it’s trying to limit.  

"As much as I'm glad to see the bill, the devil's going to be in the details as far as the implementation," Schweidel said.  

He also says the bill fails to address one of the leading causes of children encountering serious trouble online. 

"It would have been nice for this deal to kind of have a little bit more on that front end of you, making it harder to create those fake accounts…the tech companies should be required, whether it's with parental consent or you have to upload your photo ID, making it a little bit more difficult for kids to set up these accounts that their parents aren't aware of," Schweidel said.  

The bill now heads to the U.S. House, which will reconvene after their recess in September.