OTI and CDT Lead Coalition Opposing the Kids Off Social Media Act

A group of civil society organizations led by the Open Technology Institute (OTI) at New America and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) issued an open letter opposing the Kids Off Social Media Act (S. 4213) introduced by Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Katie Britt (R-Ala.). The group—which includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Fight for the Future, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation—lists its major concerns with the bill and calls on Congress to focus on passing a bicameral comprehensive privacy bill.

The letter lists three aspects of the Kids Off Social Media Act as harming the privacy and safety of youth:

1. The bill will incentivize schools to spy on children.
2. The bill has a significant, potentially unconstitutional, restriction for young people’s access to online services.
3. The bill will likely undermine existing child safety efforts.

According to the groups, language in the bill would likely lead schools that rely on E-Rate funding—which provides discounts for internet services—to adopt content filtering tech that restricts students from accessing critical information, even for schoolwork. The letter states that the bill frames a school’s ability to access E-Rate funding as tied to language that education agencies will misinterpret as requiring the installation and use of AI-powered spyware to surveil students’ online activities during and outside of school hours.