Proposed bill would end “likes” for young teens’ online content

Enlarge / Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), joined by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), speaking about net neutrality at a press conference in May 2018. (credit: Zach Gibson | Getty Images)

Back when yours truly was small, attempts to squeeze money out of children largely took place on TV, whether it was a half-hour Saturday morning toy commercial masquerading as a cartoon or local PBS affiliate fundraisers saying on-air after Sesame Street that kids should go tell their parents Big Bird will go away unless they donate. (My mother is still salty about that one.)

In the year 2020, however, kids are using all the same devices their parents are but with even less filter on how to avoid being manipulated. Existing privacy legislation provides some protection for kids under 13, but it's limited-and has no provisions at all for protecting middle- and high school-aged kids, who are the most likely to have phones in their pockets and be power-users of new social apps as they pop up. To that end, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today proposed a new bill to limit manipulative marketing, dark patterns, and harmful content being pushed to younger users.

The bill (PDF), called the Kids Internet Design and Safety (KIDS) Act, tries to tackle the "non-transparent ways" digital media properties "ensure children interact with content that reflect the interests and goals of content creators, platforms, and marketers." Children, in this case, is defined as anyone under 16. Content "directed to children," in the bill, also gets a broad definition as anything targeted to users under 16 by:

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