On Monday, Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts known for his critical stance on major technology companies, unveiled a set of three legislative proposals designed to impose stricter oversight on social media platforms, bolster protections for children, and establish a tax on advertising revenues generated by large tech companies. The fiscal proceeds from this tax would be allocated to support educational programs.
Auchincloss characterized social media corporations as among the wealthiest and most powerful entities in history. He expressed concern that these companies have been detrimental to civil discourse in the United States and accused them of exploiting children's attention through what he termed "attention fracking," treating young users as commodities rather than individuals.
The legislative package, dubbed the UnAnxious Generation, takes its name from Jonathan Haidt’s book "The Anxious Generation," which examines the negative transformation and decline of childhood due to social media. Auchincloss articulated that the measures within this package specifically confront three core advantages held by social media giants: their expansive legal protections, the extensive time adolescents spend engaged on their applications, and the vast profits earned from advertising targeted at children. He asserted that the approach directly challenges the fundamental strengths of these corporations.
Reevaluating Legal Immunity for Social Media Platforms
The first bill in the package, the bipartisan Deepfake Liability Act, co-sponsored by Utah Republican Representative Celeste Maloy, proposes amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Presently, this section grants broad immunity to online platforms for content generated by users. The new legislation would condition such immunity on platforms fulfilling a duty of care by actively addressing specific harms including deepfake pornography, cyberstalking, and digitally fabricated forgeries. Additionally, it clarifies that artificial intelligence-generated content would not fall under the coverage provided by Section 230.
Currently, under the Take It Down Act, platforms are required to remove content featuring deepfake images and non-consensual pornography within 48 hours of notification. Auchincloss explained that the proposed bill would shift responsibility from a reactive stance to a proactive obligation, mandating that companies demonstrate active efforts to mitigate these harms to qualify for immunity. He emphasized that imposing liability for such content would elevate these issues to the highest levels of corporate governance.
Imposing a Tax on Digital Advertising for Public Education
The second legislative proposal, known as the Education Not Endless Scrolling Act, introduces a 50% tax on digital advertising revenue exceeding $2.5 billion, targeting major social media corporations rather than smaller entities like niche blogs. The revenues generated from this tax would be dedicated to funding a national one-on-one tutoring program in American schools, supporting local journalism trusts, and financing career and technical education programs for youth.
Auchincloss stressed the significant profits these corporations have accrued by contributing to societal issues such as anger, isolation, and sadness, coupled with a lack of accountability to the public. This tax is intended to redirect a portion of those profits towards initiatives that improve children's lives, counteracting the commodification of youth attention by social media platforms.
Strengthening Age Verification to Shield Youth Online
The third bill, the bipartisan Parents Over Platforms Act, co-sponsored by Republican Representative Erin Houchin of Indiana, aims to close existing loopholes allowing children to bypass age restrictions on social media applications. Presently, many platforms, including Instagram and TikTok, solicit users' ages upon registration but lack mechanisms to independently verify this information. Critics of current age-related internet legislation also raise privacy concerns about children supplying personal information across numerous apps.
Under the proposed bill, parents would provide their child’s age information to the device’s App Store when setting up the phone. The App Store would then be responsible for communicating the child's age range to relevant applications, effectively blocking access to restricted platforms for users under 13.
Representative Houchin shared a personal motivation for the bill, recounting her experience when her 13-year-old daughter accessed a social media platform without parental consent by circumventing parental controls. Despite parental requests to remove the account, the platform maintained that the child was legally allowed to have the account at 13, leaving parents without control over platform access. This experience inspired Houchin to collaborate on this legislation and additional bills focused on enhancing safety measures for children interacting with artificial intelligence chatbots. Her stated aim is to restore parental authority and securely close access gaps that pose risks to children.
Context and Outlook in Congressional Efforts
This legislative package emerges amid a broader momentum in Congress to regulate Big Tech companies, particularly regarding children’s online safety. The House Energy and Commerce Committee scheduled a hearing to review 19 bills focusing on this topic. Meanwhile, the Senate has reintroduced the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, which had received strong bipartisan approval in the previous congressional term.
Additionally, Houchin and Auchincloss are establishing the Kids Online Safety Caucus, an unprecedented bipartisan group dedicated to collaborative policy development aimed at safeguarding children online. Both representatives emphasize the bipartisan nature of their mission, underscoring a shared commitment that transcends political divisions. Houchin emphasized that "good policy supersedes politics," affirming their dedication to enacting safety protocols.
Auchincloss highlighted growing public frustration with the way technology companies monetize children’s attention and expressed confidence in the necessity of legislative intervention. He identified the robust lobbying efforts of Big Tech as a primary obstacle to Congressional action but noted persistent conversations with concerned parents as motivation to advance change. He described his approach as proactive and transformative, aspiring to significantly disrupt the status quo around social media regulation.