The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act is A Terrible Alternative to KOSA

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A new bill sponsored by Sen. Schatz (D-HI), Sen. Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Murphy (D-CT), and Sen. Britt (R-AL) would combine some of the worst elements of various social media bills aimed at “protecting the children” into a single law. It contains elements of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act as well as several ideas pulled from state bills that have passed this year, such as Utah’s surveillance-heavy Social Media Regulations law. The authors of the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (S.1291) may have good intentions. But ultimately, this legislation would lead to a second-class online experience for young people, mandated privacy-invasive age verification for all users, and in all likelihood, the creation of digital IDs for all U.S. citizens and residents. 

The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act has five major components: 

• Mandate that social media companies verify the ages of all account holders, including adults 
• Ban on children under age 13 using social media at all
• Mandate that social media companies obtain parent or guardian consent before minors over 12 years old and under 18 years old may use social media
• Ban on the data of minors (anyone over 12 years old and under 18 years old) being used to inform a social media platform’s content recommendation algorithm
• Creation of a digital ID pilot program, instituted by the Department of Commerce, for citizens and legal residents, to verify ages and parent/guardian-minor relationships

All Age Verification Systems are Dangerous — Especially Governments’

The bill would make it illegal for anyone under 13 to join a social media platform, and require parental consent for anyone between the ages of 13 and 18 to do so. Thus the bill also requires platforms to develop systems to verify the ages of all users, as well as determine the parental or guardian status for minors. 

The problems inherent in age verification systems are well known. All age verification systems are identity verification systems and surveillance systems. All age verification systems also impact all users because it’s necessary to confirm the age of all people in order to keep out one select age group. This means that every social media user would be subjected to potentially privacy-invasive identity verification if they want to use social media.

Anyone age 13 to just under 18 will be required to obtain parental consent before accessing social media. We are against such laws. 

As we’ve written before, research has shown that no age verification method is sufficiently reliable, covers the entire population, and protects data privacy and security. In short, every current age verification method has significant flaws. Just to point out a few of the methods and their problems: systems that require users to upload their government identification only work for people who have IDs; systems that use photo or video to guess the age of a person are inevitably inaccurate for some portion of the population; and systems that rely on third-party data, like credit agencies, have all of the problems that this third-party data often has, such as incorrect information. And of course, all systems could tie a user’s identity to the content that they wish to view. 

An Age Verification Digital ID “Pilot Program” is a Slippery Slope Towards a National Digital ID 

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