Zamaan Qureshi, co-chair of the youth-led group Design It For Us, also pushed for quick action on KOSA after Thursday’s cancelled markup — especially given the dwindling legislative calendar. “With such limited time left this year, Congress does not have the luxury to keep kicking the can down the road. It’s time for our Congressional leaders to step up.”

“I think that young people have had a tremendous amount of stress and burden placed on them to have to figure out and police their own social media usage,” said Zamaan Qureshi, co-founder of Design it for Us, which pushes for safer social media for young people.

The youth-led coalition, Design It For Us, placed hundreds of signs on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, calling on lawmakers to pass legislation to require Big Tech to put young people’s safety and well-being ahead of profits, and design online platforms for kids, teens, and young adults at U.S. Capitol, West Lawn on July 17, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Zamaan Qureshi is the co-chair of Design It for Us, a youth advocacy group championing safe social media policy. He echoed the idea of “privacy and safety by design.”

“Even if users under the age of 13 are banned from social media, this does little to stem the threats of harmful design features and the targeting of toxic content many young people are exposed to,” Qureshi shared in an email to E2024.

 Emma Lembke, founder of an organization called LOG OFF and Zamaan Qureshi, co-chair of an organization called Design It For Us, also participated as panelists alongsize Torrez. 

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, is part of a virtual town hall addressing youth and social media Wednesday evening. The event was hosted by NBC News journalist Kate Snow and also included youth social media advocates Emma Lembke and Zamaan Qureshi.

Torrez said seeing young adults like Lembke and fellow speaker Zamaan Qureshi, co-chair of the Design It For Us campaign, which is intended to improve tech and social media with youth in mind, advocate for a safer online world.

ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze spoke with Gen Zer’s on how social media companies can improve their experiences, as states pass laws meant to protect minors on and offline.

Ahead of the 2024 election, Design It For Us — a coalition of Big Tech accountability advocates focused on making the internet safer for young people — has built an ‘AI Policy Platform’ meant to guide regulation around artificial intelligence.

Emma Lembke did not know what an algorithm was when she started using social media.

The then-12-year-old was thrilled when her parents gave her permission to join Instagram. She quickly followed all kinds of accounts — from Kim Kardashian to Olive Garden, she said — and was soon spending five to six hours a day on the app. Then one day she searched for “ab workouts,” and her feed shifted. She started seeing 200-calorie recipes, pro-anorexia posts and exercise routines that “no 12-year-old should be doing in their bedroom,” she said.

Design It For Us, a coalition advocating for safer social media and online platforms for children, praised the new law. “We hope this will bring urgency to other states to pass and adopt much needed Kids Code legislation and end Big Tech’s power over our safety and privacy,” said Zamaan Qureshi, a co-chair of the group.

Some states are looking to pass age-appropriate design laws, advocated by groups such as the youth-led coalition Design It For Us.