Kids online safety bills move forward from Senate, House panel

Design It For Us, a youth-led group that advocates on social media design, led a letter signed by dozens of civil-society groups urging the committee not to forward the KIDS Act and its version of KOSA. The letter raised concerns about the lack of a duty of care, broad preemption of state laws and the bill’s knowledge standard.

Is age-gating social media the answer? Advocates aren’t sure.

The concerns from Smithing and other advocates, like co-chair of the nonprofit Design it for Us Sebastian Mahal, suggest politicians pursuing age-gating in Europe and the United States may find themselves at odds with some of the groups they’ve counted as allies in past fights to rein in social media giants.

Mahal told Decoded in a statement that a blanket social media ban “restricts access instead of addressing the root problems through meaningful platform accountability.”

“We urge Governor Newsom to continue championing design-centered regulation that tackles the core business model of social media and AI products,” Mahal added.

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TRANSITIONS — Sebastian Mahal and Nikki Iyer are now co-chairs of Design It For Us. Mahal is a youth organizer and recent American University graduate. Iyer is currently a student at UC Berkeley