Attorney General Bonta Reaffirms Support for Federal Legislation to Protect Kids Online
Senate’s Kids Online Safety Act allows states to continue critical work to protect children
OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a bipartisan coalition of 45 attorneys general in reaffirming support for the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), S. 1748. This bill would protect children from emerging technologies including some of the most dangerous features employed by social media companies. S. 1748 also preserves states’ authority to enact laws and regulations that provide greater protections for children, ensuring that federal law would not preempt state laws with stronger protections like the nation-leading legislation advanced by Attorney General Bonta to combat addictive social media algorithms in California.
"Federal action is critical to keep kids safe online. Children nationwide need leaders who will step in when social media companies prioritize profits over commonsense consumer protections,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Senate’s KOSA legislation creates a federal floor of baseline protections states can build off of, while still allowing states like California to have stronger safeguards in place. California has led the effort to protect children online, and we welcome federal action that puts kids at the forefront.”
S. 1748 maintains bipartisan support and seeks to establish a duty of care provision in order to protect children from online harm. This requirement would impose the responsibility of mitigating and preventing harm to children under 18 onto social media companies. S. 1748, unlike its counterpart U.S. House version, H.R. 6484, allows states to preserve the ability to act for future scenarios where online harm might be imminent. H.R. 6484 includes harmful preemption language that would potentially impair states from acting and implementing state laws that protect kids online. S. 1748 lacks such dangerous language and maintains a duty of care provision that will allow both state and federal government to address potential mental health harms caused by social media usage.
BACKGROUND
Excessive time spent online is associated with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, susceptibility to addiction, and interference with daily life — including learning. Every additional hour that young people spend online is associated with an increased severity in symptoms of depression. Increasing evidence shows that these companies are aware of the adverse mental health consequences imposed on underage users, yet they have chosen to dig in deeper and deploy practices that keep kids' eyes glued to screens.
California’s own investigations revealed and lawsuits against Meta and TikTok alleged that the social media giants designed their platforms to addict young people so they would spend longer on the platforms, to the detriment of their mental and physical health. For example, California's enforcement action against TikTok alleges that the company knew the harm that could come from young people using its platforms and designed the platform to include features that the company knew were uniquely psychologically and physically harmful to young users to keep them compulsively returning and staying longer.
In August 2026, Attorney General Bonta and a coalition of 51 attorneys general announced a transformative, $17 billion settlement with Meta that helps protect children from the mental health harms associated with social media, including default daily time limits on social media and a block on overnight use that can only be lifted by a parent, enhanced parental supervision tools, robust age assurance measures to detect users under 18 and children under 13 that are on the platform, and the appointment of an independent auditor to oversee compliance.
In 2024, California enacted the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) to limit social media companies and other website operators from using addictive algorithmic feeds, notifications, and other addictive design features that coerce children and teens into spending long periods of time on their platform. The state law requires parental consent for these features, empowering families to create healthy boundaries around kids’ social media use. And last year, California enacted the Social Media Warning Law (AB 56), which requires social media companies to periodically display a warning label on their platforms when used by children and teens. While social media may have benefits for some young users, the warning label advises that social media is associated with significant mental health harms and has not been proven safe for young users.
Attorney General Bonta joined the effort led by Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez, Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, along with attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
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