{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://castor.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403712", "Rep. Castor, Bicameral Colleagues Reintroduce Legislation to Protect Children and Teens From Online Manipulation and Harm", "2021-09-30", "2021", "2021-09", "Democrat", "House", "FL", "Kathy Castor", "C001066", "castor.house.gov", "castor", "https://castor.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "Today, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL14), Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Reps. Jennifer Wexton (VA10), Lori Trahan (MA03) and Yvette Clarke (NY09) reintroduced the Kids Internet Design and Safety (KIDS) Act, legislation to stop online practices such as manipulative marketing, amplification of harmful content, and damaging design features, which threaten young people online.\n\n\u201cResearch has made it clear that our increasingly online world is unsafe for children, with popular apps pushing kids to spend unhealthy amounts of time on their devices and negatively affecting the mental health of teens. It\u2019s past time to take action. I\u2019m proud to reintroduce the KIDS Act with my House and Senate colleagues to implement safeguards to protect our children online and hold Big Tech and manipulative marketers accountable for their dangerous actions. Let\u2019s get this bill over the finish line and provide our kids the 21st century online protections they deserve,\u201d said Rep. Castor.\n\n\u201cThe handful of powerful online platforms where kids and teens spend most of their online time are inherently harmful to them,\u201d said Senator Markey, co-author of the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). \u201cBig Tech continues to blatantly prioritize raking in revenue over protecting children and teens, and that must stop. We know that these companies won\u2019t change their ways unless Congress forces them to. That\u2019s why I am proud to re-introduce the Kids Internet Design and Safety Act. I thank my partners in the Senate and House of Representatives for their continued leadership on this important issue and will work to get this legislation passed.\u201d\n\n\"Our kids are spending more and more time in front of their screens, which means more time being bombarded by inappropriate ads and uncensored content,\" said Rep. Jennifer Wexton. \"Big tech companies have an incentive to get more views, more clicks, and more revenue, and right now there are minimal guardrails to protect children from that manipulative business model. As founder of the Congressional Task Force on Digital Citizenship, I'm proud to join Rep. Castor in introducing the KIDS Act to establish common sense regulations on these online platforms and keep kids safe.\"\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s clearer than ever that online protections for children have lagged behind the rapid expansion of the Internet and withered under the dominance of social media platforms,\u201d said Rep. Trahan. \u201cIt\u2019s long past time for Washington to catch up and do what companies like Facebook have proven unwilling to \u2013 protect our kids. I\u2019m proud to partner with Congresswomen Castor, Wexton, and Clarke, as well as Senators Markey and Blumenthal to reintroduce the KIDS Act. This legislation will finally deliver the safeguards and reassurance that children and their parents should be able to expect when they log on.\u201d\n\n\"The tech industry continuously makes it clear profit is always preferable over people, and tragically, children are no exception. These unscrupulous marketers have targeted online spaces to exploit kids and teens and to cultivate their addiction to the platforms. Enough is Enough,\u201d said Rep. Clarke. \u201cThe internet should serve as a resource for children to learn and grow and form communities \u2014 not as a deliverable for whatever toxic substance, new product, or disturbing content Silicon Valley boardrooms deem relevant. As long as Big tech does not prioritize the safety of our children, the KIDS Act will remain a necessary means to an end.\n\n\u201cOnline platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have repeatedly prioritized profits over children\u2019s safety. By cracking down on harmful content and manipulative marketing, this legislation will stop proliferating the bad practices of these tech giants. They pose a serious threat \u2013 immediate and long term \u2013 to young users. As Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, I\u2019m proud to cosponsor this legislation to protect our children and hold these apps accountable,\u201d said Senator Blumenthal.\n\nA copy of the legislation can be found HERE.\n\nThe KIDS Act creates new protections for online users under 16 by:\n\nDamaging Design Features:\n\nBanning \u201cauto-play\u201d settings that lead to prolonged and unhealthy viewing sessions on websites and apps for kids and young teens.\n\nBanning push alerts that encourage kids and young teens to pull out their devices and increase screen-time.\n\nBanning badges that reward kids and young teens for increasing their time spent on an app or website.\n\nBanning interface features, such as \u201clike\u201d buttons and follower counts, that quantify levels of popularity for children and teens\n\nAmplification of Harmful Content:\n\nProhibiting websites for kids and teens from amplifying violent, inappropriate, and dangerous content.\n\nRequiring websites to implement mechanisms for users to report instances in which the websites recommend harmful content to kids and young teens.\n\nManipulative Marketing:\n\nProhibiting websites from recommending content that includes host-selling, or influencer marketing, such as \u201cunboxing videos\u201d to children and young teens.\n\nProhibiting websites from recommending content that involves nicotine, tobacco, or alcohol to children and young teens.\n\nProhibiting websites from exposing children and young teens to marketing with imbedded interactive elements.\n\nDigital media and popular social media platforms are increasingly embedded in young people\u2019s lives. Research shows that children under the age of 8 consume digital media for almost two and a half hours a day, on average; over two-thirds of 5- to 8-year-olds have their own tablet or smartphone, and three-in-ten parents of children aged 9 to 11 report their children use TikTok. While kids are increasingly living their lives online, new reports have highlighted the variety of threats to young people online, including algorithms that serve dangerous and inappropriate content to young users, the damaging mental health effects of influencer content, and platform designs that keep kids on social media platforms for lengthy periods of time.\n\nIn April, Representatives Castor and Trahan and Senators Markey and Blumenthal wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding Facebook\u2019s announcement that the company is \u201cexploring\u201d plans to develop a version of Instagram for. In May, after the company failed to make meaningful commitments to protect kids online, the lawmakers released a statement calling on Facebook to abandon its plans for the children\u2019s platform. Earlier this month, following reports Facebook has conducted and reviewed research showing a connection between Instagram and mental health problems among young users, Representatives Castor and Trahan and Senator Markey wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, demanding answers and renewing their call for Facebook to abandon its plans to develop an Instagram for kids platform. Facebook has since announced its intention to \u201cpause\u201d its plans to develop this app.\n\nEndorsers of the KIDS Act include: Common Sense Media, Center for Digital Democracy, Fairplay, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.\n\n\u201cCommon Sense is deeply grateful to Sen. Markey and Rep. Castor for their continued commitment to prioritizing kids' digital well-being. Online platforms should support kids and families, not exploit them for profit,\" said James P. Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense. \u201cThe KIDS Act would help to protect young people from addictive and manipulative design, platform features designed to make kids feel bad about themselves, inappropriate commercial exhortations, and other unhealthy online content that is increasingly pushed on kids, such as violence and self-harm.\u201d\n\n\"This landmark legislation is an important step towards creating the online environment that children deserve,\" said Josh Golin, Executive Director, Fairplay. \"Far too often, platforms are designed for monetization at the expense of young people's wellbeing. The KIDS Act will provide critical safeguards so that children using online and mobile platforms to learn and connect won't be exposed to unfair influencer marketing or manipulative design designed to extract their family's money and keep them online far longer than is good for them. We applaud Senator Markey and Representative Castor for the ongoing commitment to protect young people from the Internet's harmful business model.\"\n\n\u201cThis groundbreaking bill will provide young people with the 21st Century safeguards they urgently need today,\u201d said Katharina Kopp, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Center for Digital Democracy. \u201cChildren and teens are being subjected to an unprecedented array of harmful digital marketing practices that undermine their health, privacy, security, and development. Unaccountable and sophisticated commercial data-driven interactive applications are designed to manipulate their emotions and behaviors. Youth of color and low-income communities are particularly vulnerable to this onslaught of exploitive practices. The \u201cKids Act\u201d will ensure that young people will grow up in a world where they are no longer held captive by these unaccountable outside forces.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://castor.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403712"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0686079040169716, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}