Biden demands Congress protect kids online in State of the Union address

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In his first State of the Union address, President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass new rules to improve child safety on social media platforms. The White House plans to make specific funding requests to study and improve children's online safety after Biden called for these rules for the first time.

Biden requested that Congress institute stronger children's privacy rules, ban targeted advertising to children, and pressure social media companies to design their products with child safety in mind. The White House has provided a fact sheet that states that the administration will target social media platforms that target minorities.

Biden said Tuesday night that it was time to strengthen privacy protections, ban targeted advertising to children, and demand tech companies stop collecting personal data on our children.

The request comes just months after a Facebook employee, named Frances Haugen, testified before several congressional committees accusing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, of turning a blind eye to the safety of young users. The special guest of the First Lady of the State of the Union address was Haugen.

Republicans and Democrats agreed that it was necessary to roll out stronger children's privacy rules. It is not clear what those regulations will look like. The KIDS Act was brought back by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) last October. Biden called for a ban on all targeted advertising to children during his address.

Biden said that they must hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they are conducting on our children.

The administration could apply to address these concerns, as Biden announced that he would request $5 million in his 2023 budget to research how social media harms the mental health of its users. The Department of Health and Human services will launch a national center of excellence on social media and mental illness over the next year, according to Biden. The new program would give guidance on the full impact of social media use.