H.R. 7433 — Kids Off Social Media Act

This section defines terms used in this title, including "personalized recommendation system" as a fully or partially automated system that suggests, promotes, or ranks content based on users' personal data; "child" as an individual under age 13; "teen" as an individual over age 12 and under age 17; and "social media platform" as a public-facing website, online service, application, or mobile application that is directed to consumers, collects personal data, primarily derives revenue from advertising or the sale of personal data, and provides a community forum for user-generated content. The term excludes platforms whose primary function is the purchase and sale of goods, teleconferencing, encyclopedias, cloud storage or file sharing, video games, non-user-generated news or entertainment, business or travel reviews, educational services, email, wireless messaging, broadband internet access, or virtual private networks.

This section prohibits social media platforms from permitting an individual under age 13 to create or maintain an account or profile and requires platforms to terminate any existing accounts or profiles belonging to such children. Upon termination, platforms must immediately delete all personal data collected from or submitted by the child, except that the user may request and receive a copy of the data within 90 days in a readable format and in a portable, structured, machine-readable format; platforms may retain only a record of the termination and the minimum information necessary to demonstrate compliance.

This section prohibits social media platforms from using a child’s or teen’s personal data in a personalized recommendation system to display content, except when the system uses only the device type, languages used, city or town location, fact of being a child or teen, or age of the user. It clarifies that the prohibition does not restrict search results from deliberate user queries, reasonable measures to block unlawful or obscene material, spam, or security threats, or the chronological display of user-generated content that a teen has selected, followed, or subscribed to.

This section establishes rules of construction for determining whether a social media platform has knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances that a user is a child or teen, requiring the Commission or a state attorney general to rely on competent and reliable evidence considering the totality of circumstances, including whether a reasonable and prudent person would have known the user's age. It prohibits construing the title to require platforms to implement age gating or age verification or to affirmatively collect personal data on user age beyond what is already collected in the normal course of business, and it restricts any voluntarily collected personal data to use solely for compliance with the title while limiting retention to the period necessary for compliance or demonstrating compliance.

This section establishes enforcement authority for violations of this title. It treats such violations as unfair or deceptive acts or practices under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act and grants the Commission the same jurisdiction, powers, duties, penalties, privileges, and immunities as under that Act, while preserving the Commission's authority under other laws. The section also authorizes state attorneys general, as parens patriae, to bring civil actions in federal district court on behalf of state residents to enjoin violations, enforce compliance, obtain damages or restitution, or secure other appropriate relief; requires prior written notice to the Commission (with an exception for infeasibility); permits Commission intervention; and preempts separate state actions during the pendency of a Commission action for the same violation.

This section limits preemption under this title to state laws, rules, or regulations that directly conflict with its provisions and expressly permits states to enact measures providing greater protections to children or teens. The section further provides that nothing in the title affects the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C. 1232g), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.), or any rule or regulation issued under either statute, or authorizes any action conflicting with section 18(h) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(h)).

This section amends the Children’s Internet Protection Act to condition elementary and secondary schools’ receipt of E-rate discounts under section 254(h) of the Communications Act of 1934 on certification that the school enforces a policy blocking student access to social media platforms on any supported service, device, or network. The required policy must include monitoring of online activities and operation of a technology protection measure that blocks social media platforms during student use; the certification must be submitted within 120 days after the beginning of the first program funding year following enactment of the Eyes on the Board Act of 2026 and thereafter as part of each annual application. The provision defines “social media platform” to cover websites and applications that primarily host user-generated content while expressly excluding email, wireless messaging, teleconferencing, non-commercial educational services, business-to-business software, and internet service providers, and it includes rules of construction that preserve district-sanctioned learning management systems and teacher use of social media for educational instruction.

This section requires schools and libraries participating in the E-rate program to submit copies of their internet safety policies to the Federal Communications Commission along with required certifications, and directs the Commission to establish an easily accessible public database containing all such policies. It also revises the review process for libraries by requiring them to make copies of adopted internet safety policies available to the Commission upon request.