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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, over the past year, I have worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle on legislation to protect kids from the harms of social media.

The role of platforms like Instagram and TikTok in turbocharging the mental health crisis among our kids is clear--the data shows it; our personal experience shows it; warnings from experts like the Surgeon General confirm it--which is why last month, after months of work with the Commerce Committee and outside stakeholders, I introduced an updated version of my bipartisan bill called the Kids Off Social Media Act with Senators Cruz, Murphy, Britt, and many others.

The bill does a few very straightforward things. First, it sets the minimum age of social media use to 13. Second, it bans platforms from targeting kids under 17 with their powerful black-box algorithms. Third, it blocks social media sites from school networks--something that almost 90 percent of all schools already do.

Over the past several weeks, my team and I have continued to work with other Member offices as well as a wide range of outside stakeholders to refine the bill in important ways, and we continue to have productive conversations on strengthening the bill in order to best protect kids online.

Colleagues may have seen the hotline run on my bill, and we continue to work toward a markup. There are also several other bills pending on this issue, which I support. It is my hope that the Senate will consider all of these bills in short order and finally give kids the help and the protection they need.

Congress has to act in this area. We now have many good proposals, most of them not in competition with each other. Let's take some action.

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