Safe Social Media Act

Bill: 117-s-1630
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Scott, Rick [R-FL]
Introduced: 2021-05-13
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications
Subjects: Child health

Child safety and welfare

Congressional oversight

Government studies and investigations

Internet and video services

Internet, web applications, social media

Mental health

Right of privacy
Latest action: action_date: 2021-05-13
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Summaries:
action_date: 2021-05-13
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Safe Social Media Act</b></p> <p>This bill requires the Federal Trade Commission, in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to report on the use of social media platforms among individuals under age 18. The report must include information such as frequency of usage, mental health effects linked to such usage, and any policy recommendations. A <i>social media platform</i> is a public-facing website, internet application, or mobile internet application (e.g., social network, search engine, or email service) with at least 30 million active monthly users in the United States.</p>

tv_txt: II 117th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1630 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 13, 2021 Mr. Scott of Florida introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To require the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a study regarding social media use by teenagers.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Safe Social Media Act . 2. Report by the FTC on social media use by teenagers The Federal Trade Commission, in coordination with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall— (1) conduct a study on social media platform use among individuals younger than age 18, including— (A) what personal information is collected by social media platforms regarding such individuals; (B) how such personal information is used by the algorithms of the social media platforms; (C) how often such individuals use social media platforms daily; (D) differences in use of social media platforms related to the age ranges of such individuals; (E) mental health effects on such individuals linked to the use of social media platforms; and (F) potential harmful effects on such individuals from extended social media platform use; and (2) not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, submit to Congress a report on the findings of the study under paragraph (1), including any recommended policy changes based on such findings. 3. Definition of social media platform In this Act, the term social media platform means a public-facing website, internet application, or mobile internet application, including a social network, video sharing service, ad network, mobile operating system, search engine, email service, or internet access service, that has not less than 30,000,000 active monthly users in the United States.