I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6149 
To require that social media platforms verify the age of their users, prohibit 
the use of algorithmic recommendation systems on individuals under 
age 18, require parental or guardian consent for social media users 
under age 18, and prohibit users who are under age 13 from accessing 
social media platforms. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 1, 2023 
Mr. JAMES (for himself and Mr. RYAN) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To require that social media platforms verify the age of 
their users, prohibit the use of algorithmic recommenda-
tion systems on individuals under age 18, require paren-
tal or guardian consent for social media users under 
age 18, and prohibit users who are under age 13 from 
accessing social media platforms. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Kids on 
Social Media Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) 
ALGORITHMIC
RECOMMENDATION
SYS-
TEM.—The term ‘‘algorithmic recommendation sys-
tem’’ means a fully or partially automated system 
that suggests, promotes, or ranks information for, or 
presents advertising to, an individual. 
(2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 
means the Federal Trade Commission. 
(3) INDIVIDUAL.—The term ‘‘individual’’ means 
a social media platform user who habitually resides 
in the United States. 
(4) MINOR.—The term ‘‘minor’’ means an indi-
vidual who is at least 13 years of age but under 18 
years of age. 
(5) PERSONAL
DATA.—The term ‘‘personal 
data’’ means information that identifies or is linked 
or reasonably linkable to an individual, household, or 
consumer device. 
(6) SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM.—The term ‘‘so-
cial media platform’’ means an online application or 
website that— 
(A) offers services to users in the United 
States; 
(B) allows users to create accounts to pub-
lish or distribute to the public or to other users 
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text, images, videos, or other forms of media 
content; and 
(C) provides the functions described in 
paragraph (B) other than in support of— 
(i) 
facilitating 
commercial 
trans-
actions; 
(ii) facilitating teleconferencing and 
videoconferencing features that are limited 
to certain participants in the teleconference 
or videoconference and are not posted pub-
licly or for broad distribution to other 
users; 
(iii) 
facilitating 
subscription-based 
content or newsletters; 
(iv) facilitating crowd-sourced content 
for reference guides such as encyclopedias 
and dictionaries; 
(v) providing cloud-based electronic 
storage, including cloud-based storage that 
allows collaborative editing by invited 
users; 
(vi) making video games available for 
play by users; 
(vii) reporting or disseminating news; 
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(viii) providing other kinds of infor-
mation concerning businesses, products, or 
travel information, including user reviews 
or rankings of such businesses, products, 
or other travel information; 
(ix) providing educational information 
or instruction on behalf of or in support of 
an elementary school or secondary school, 
as such terms are defined in section 8101 
of the Elementary and Secondary Edu-
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801); 
(x) facilitating electronic mail or di-
rect messaging between users (except for 
message boards or applications where users 
can add themselves to messaging groups 
consisting of large numbers of users) con-
sisting of text, photos, or videos that are 
not posted publicly and are visible only to 
the senders and recipients; or 
(xi) any other function that provides 
content to end users but does not allow the 
dissemination of user-generated content. 
SEC. 3. REASONABLE STEPS FOR AGE VERIFICATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—A social media platform shall take 
reasonable steps beyond merely requiring attestation, tak-
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ing into account existing age verification technologies, to 
verify the age of individuals who are account holders on 
the platform. 
(b) RESTRICTION ON USE AND RETENTION OF IN-
FORMATION.—A social media platform shall not— 
(1) use any information collected as part of the 
platform’s age verification process for any other pur-
pose; or 
(2) retain any information collected from a user 
as part of the age verification process except to the 
extent necessary to prove that the platform has 
taken reasonable steps to verify the age of the user. 
(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion shall be construed to require a social media platform 
to require users to provide government-issued identifica-
tion for age verification. 
(d) EXISTING ACCOUNTS.—A social media platform 
shall not be required to verify the age of account holders 
on the platform for any account that, as of the date of 
enactment of this Act, has existed for 90 days or more, 
until 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act. 
(e) UNVERIFIED ACCOUNTS.—A social media plat-
form shall not permit an individual to create a user ac-
count (or continue to use an existing user account after 
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the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of 
this Act) if the individual’s age has not been verified. 
(f) SAFE HARBOR.—A social media platform that, for 
age verification purposes, relies in good faith on informa-
tion provided by the Pilot Program described in section 
7 to verify the age of a user shall be deemed to have taken 
reasonable steps to verify the age of that user on the plat-
form. 
SEC. 4. NO CHILDREN UNDER 13. 
A social media platform shall not permit an individual 
to use the platform (other than merely viewing content, 
as long as such viewing does not involve logging in or 
interacting with the content or other users) unless the in-
dividual is known or reasonably believed to be age 13 or 
older according to the age verification process used by the 
platform. 
SEC. 5. PARENT OR GUARDIAN CONSENT FOR MINORS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—A social media platform shall take 
reasonable steps beyond merely requiring attestation, tak-
ing into account current parent or guardian relationship 
verification technologies and documentation, to require the 
affirmative consent of a parent or guardian to create an 
account for any individual who the social media platform 
knows or reasonably believes to be a minor according to 
the age verification process used by the platform. 
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(b) RESTRICTION ON USE AND RETENTION OF IN-
FORMATION.—A social media platform shall not— 
(1) use any information collected as part of the 
parent or guardian consent process for any other 
purpose; or 
(2) retain any information collected as part of 
the parent or guardian verification process except to 
the extent necessary to— 
(A) provide confirmation of the affirmative 
consent of a parent or guardian for a minor 
user to create an account; 
(B) preserve the ability of the parent or 
guardian to revoke such consent; and 
(C) prove that the platform has taken rea-
sonable steps to obtain the affirmative consent 
of a parent or guardian for a minor user to cre-
ate an account. 
(c) ABILITY TO REVOKE CONSENT.—A social media 
platform shall take reasonable steps to provide a parent 
or guardian who has consented to their child’s social 
media use with the ability to revoke such consent. 
(d) EFFECT OF REVOCATION OF CONSENT.—A social 
media platform that receives a revocation of consent under 
subsection (c) shall suspend, delete, or otherwise disable 
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the account of the minor user for whom consent was re-
voked. 
(e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion shall be construed to require a social media platform 
to require minor users or their parents or guardians to 
provide government-issued identification for relationship 
verification or the provision of affirmative consent to cre-
ate an account. 
(f) SAFE HARBOR.—A social media platform that, for 
parent or guardian relationship verification purposes, re-
lies in good faith on information provided by the Pilot Pro-
gram described in section 7 shall be deemed to have taken 
reasonable steps to verify the parent or guardian relation-
ship of the parent or guardian granting consent for a 
minor user to create an account under this section. 
SEC. 6. PROHIBITION ON THE USE OF ALGORITHMIC REC-
OMMENDATION SYSTEMS ON TEENS UNDER 
18. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—A social media platform shall not 
use the personal data of an individual in an algorithmic 
recommendation system unless the platform knows or rea-
sonably believes that the individual is age 18 or older ac-
cording to the age verification process used by the plat-
form. 
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(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—The prohibition in 
subsection (a) shall not be construed to prevent the sug-
gestion of information or provision of advertising to an 
individual based on context where the information or ad-
vertising is related to the content being viewed by the indi-
vidual, as long as such information is suggested or adver-
tising is provided solely based on context and is not tar-
geted or recommended based on personal data of the indi-
vidual. 
SEC. 7. SECURE DIGITAL IDENTIFICATION CREDENTIAL 
PILOT PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce 
(referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall estab-
lish a pilot program (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Pilot 
Program’’) for providing a secure digital identification cre-
dential to individuals who are citizens and lawful residents 
of the United States at no cost to the individual. 
(b) PILOT PROGRAM PARAMETERS.—The Pilot Pro-
gram shall do the following: 
(1) Allow individuals to verify their age, or their 
parent or guardian relationship with a minor user, 
by uploading copies of government-issued and other 
forms of identification (such as records issued by an 
educational institution), or by validating the authen-
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ticity of identity information provided by the indi-
vidual using electronic records of State departments 
of motor vehicles, the Internal Revenue Service, the 
Social Security Administration, State agencies re-
sponsible for vital records, or other governmental or 
professional records providers that the Secretary de-
termines are able to reliably assist in the verification 
of identity information. 
(2) Meet or exceed the highest cybersecurity 
standards expected of secure consumer products 
such as financial or healthcare records or that are 
required to obtain access to government systems. 
(3) Provide users with the ability to— 
(A) obtain a secure digital identification 
credential that they may use to verify their age 
or parent or guardian relationship with enrolled 
social media platforms; and 
(B) control what data they choose to allow 
the pilot program to share with a social media 
platform, without sharing copies of the under-
lying verification documents or any information 
that the user does not affirmatively agree to 
share with those social media platforms. 
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(4) Not retain copies of underlying govern-
mental records after verifying the information pro-
vided by the user. 
(5) Provide users with the ability to disable or 
delete their secure digital identification credential 
and any associated records kept by the Pilot Pro-
gram at any time. 
(6) Keep no records of the social media plat-
forms where users have verified their identity using 
a secure digital identification credential, other than 
aggregate data that is anonymized so that it cannot 
be linked to individual users. 
(c) ACCESS.—Information regarding individual users 
of the Pilot Program shall be confidential, and no officer 
or employee of the United States, or any other person who 
has or had access to such information due to their involve-
ment with the Pilot Program, shall disclose any such infor-
mation to any entity, including law enforcement agencies, 
except— 
(1) with the consent of the user; 
(2) in connection with oversight by an Inspector 
General related to the proper implementation of this 
Act; 
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(3) in connection with an investigation into a 
user for committing fraud against the Pilot Pro-
gram; or 
(4) pursuant to a court order. 
(d) VOLUNTARY PROGRAM.—The Pilot Program de-
scribed in subsection (a) shall be voluntary, and nothing 
in this Act shall be construed to require any individual 
or social media platform to use the Pilot Program. 
(e) SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM ENROLLMENT.— 
(1) The Secretary may establish regulations for 
social media platform enrollment in the Pilot Pro-
gram to ensure that enrolled social media platforms 
employ appropriate privacy and technical protections 
sufficient to prevent the abuse or improper release 
of Pilot Program information relating to individual 
users. 
(2) The Secretary may revoke the enrollment of 
any social media platform to protect the integrity 
and security of the Pilot Program information. 
(f) AUTHORITY TO ENTER AGREEMENTS.—The Sec-
retary shall have the authority to enter into memoranda 
of agreement with Federal, State, tribal, or nongovern-
mental entities, including entering into contracts with pri-
vate identity verification technology providers, to facilitate 
the establishment and operation of the Pilot Program. 
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(g) DESIGN REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 
1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-
retary shall submit to the Committee on Commerce of the 
Senate, the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate, 
the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House 
of Representatives, and the Committee on Appropriations 
of the House of Representatives, a report outlining the 
proposed design of the Pilot Program, including estimated 
costs and the identification of any legal or other barriers 
identified as impeding the creation and functioning of the 
Pilot Program. 
(h) ALLOWABLE USE.—The Pilot Program shall be 
used only to establish online age verification and parental 
consent for purposes of social media platform participa-
tion, and may not be used to establish eligibility for any 
government benefit or legal status. 
(i) SUNSET.—The Pilot Program shall end on the 
later of— 
(1) September 30 of the eighth year that begins 
after the date of enactment of this Act; and 
(2) September 30 of the fifth year that begins 
after the date on which the Pilot Program begins 
providing secure digital identification credentials to 
individuals. 
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(j) AUTHORIZATION.—There are authorized to be ap-
propriated to the Secretary such sums as may be nec-
essary to carry out the provisions of this section. 
SEC. 8. ENFORCEMENT. 
(a) ENFORCEMENT BY COMMISSION.— 
(1) UNFAIR
OR
DECEPTIVE
ACTS
OR
PRAC-
TICES.—A violation of this Act by a social media 
platform shall be treated as a violation of a rule de-
fining an unfair or deceptive act or practice pre-
scribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal 
Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 
(2) POWERS OF COMMISSION.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 
subparagraph (C), the Commission shall enforce 
this Act in the same manner, by the same 
means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, 
and duties as though all applicable terms and 
provisions of the Federal Trade Commission 
Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated 
into and made a part of this Act. 
(B) PRIVILEGES
AND
IMMUNITIES.—Ex-
cept as provided in subparagraph (C), any per-
son who violates this Act shall be subject to the 
penalties and entitled to the privileges and im-
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