Technology, Privacy and AI

Children and social media

39 public statements from 2026 candidates

§1The range of views

Why this matters: These rules affect children's safety and mental health online, and age checks can affect the privacy and free speech of adult users too.

Drafted by AI, then checked for neutral wording in a separate AI review. It describes the question and the main positions, not any candidate's view. Facts link to their sources.

Whether and how governments should limit children's and teens' use of social media, through age limits, age checks, parental consent or rules for how apps are designed.

Bar children under a set age, such as 16, from having social media accounts, with age checks
Require safer designs and settings for minors, and parental consent for younger users
Leave it to parents, with no new government requirements on apps

These options describe policies, not people. The order is not a ranking.

§2What candidates have said

Why this matters: Statements candidates made publicly, summarized in plain words with a link to where they said it. Candidates who haven't spoken publicly on this issue aren't listed.

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

Bar children under a set age, such as 16, from having social media accounts, with age checks (5)

Eric Jones CA-4
His campaign website says children should be kept off addictive social media and AI products until age 16.^1,2
Rob Sand IA Governor
His campaign website says he supports banning social media accounts for children under 16 and requiring parental consent for 16- and 17-year-olds, and names Utah's 2025 app store law, which requires age checks and parental consent for users under 18, as one way to do it.³
Jake Auchincloss MA-4
His campaign website says he is leading legislation to raise the minimum age for social media accounts from 13 to 16, with age verification that does not require uploading photo IDs or scanning faces.⁴
Rebecca Bennett NJ-7
Her healthcare priorities page lists much more support for mental health care, especially for children and young adults, and holding social media companies responsible for harmful practices; her one-pager on protecting families online calls for barring children under 16 from social media, enforcing strict age verification, and extending federal children's online privacy protections and fines to everyone under 16.^5,6
Lauren Pinkston TN Governor
Her campaign website supports no social media before age 16 and phone-free schools for the whole school day.⁷

Require safer designs and settings for minors, and parental consent for younger users (7)

Scott Wiener CA-11
His campaign website says he would pass a federal law banning infinite scroll, auto-play, algorithmic push notifications and similar engagement features aimed at minors, and ban surveillance-based advertising aimed at children.⁸
Stephanie M. Vargas CA-33
Her campaign website says she will advocate for legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, which it says would set a duty of care requiring tech companies to protect children from addictive algorithms and harmful content.⁹
Lindsay James IA-2
Her campaign website says she wants a duty of care and safety standards for social media and AI companies, parental notification and consent for what children can see or do in apps, automatic exclusion of children from targeted advertising, and an end to infinite scroll and other addictive features.¹⁰
Daniel Biss IL-9
His campaign website says Congress should ban features designed to capture children's attention, such as endless scroll and autoplay, raise the age at which data collection is allowed, and mandate parental control tools.¹¹
Aaron D. Ford NV Governor
His campaign website says he would support policies that curb the addictive design of social media for children, give parents more control, require stronger safety standards for platforms used by minors and bar the sale of student data.¹²
David Hatley TN Governor
His campaign website proposes making minors' accounts private by default, blocking unknown adults from messaging children, giving parents control over feeds and notifications, and limiting the sale of children's data.¹³
James Talarico TX Senate
His campaign website says he would give parents more control over their children's social media use and bar platforms from using algorithms to send targeted content to minors.¹⁴

Leave it to parents, with no new government requirements on apps (1)

Ted Brown TX Senate
His campaign website says he opposes government age limits and age verification for social media and other internet use, and says policing children's internet use is up to parents.¹⁵

Statements that don't match one option (26)

Jeff Wadlin AR Senate
His campaign website says he supports phone-free school policies but opposes broad federal app bans and age checks that require uploading an ID or face scan, and favors parental controls set up through phone carriers.¹⁶
Mark DeSaulnier CA-10
His campaign website says he is pushing to hold social media platforms accountable for their effects on young people's mental health.¹⁷
Sam Liccardo CA-16
His campaign website says some age verification for social media is critical, and proposes standards of best practice for protecting children that companies must meet to avoid lawsuits.¹⁸
George Whitesides CA-27
His campaign website says he is working on research into social media's effects on teen mental health, partnerships with technology companies on online safety measures, and digital literacy programs in schools.¹⁹
Phil Weiser CO Governor
His campaign website says he would sign legislation holding social media companies accountable for the harm they cause children.²⁰
Chris Coons DE Senate
His campaign website lists the Kids Online Safety Act (2024) among the bipartisan bills it says he helped pass to protect children online.²¹
Ashley Moody FL Senate special
Her official Senate biography says that as attorney general she worked to defend children against what it calls invasive and addictive Big Tech policies.²²
Austin Rogers FL-2
His campaign website says he will push for legislation to protect children from online predators and exploitation, and that large technology companies must be held responsible when their platforms put children at risk.²³
Mike Sell FL-4
His campaign's bill tracker lists him as supporting the Kids Online Safety Act and COPPA 2.0, which it says would require platforms to protect children from harmful content and bar ads targeted at children and teens.^24,25
Gus Michael Bilirakis FL-12
His campaign website says he is working to give parents more tools to keep children safe online.²⁶
Michael Bridgford IA-1
His campaign website says he will champion a legal ban on algorithmic tracking targeted at minors.²⁷
Angel Oakley IL-3
Her policy page says she will work to protect children online while respecting parental authority and constitutional rights.²⁸
Melissa L. Bean IL-8
Her campaign website says she will hold tech companies accountable for harmful practices, strengthen protections for children's privacy and mental health online, close loopholes children use to bypass age restrictions, and support school efforts to ban phones during class time.²⁹
Larry Davis III LA-6
His campaign website's Policies page lists protecting children from harmful social media algorithms among his technology goals.³⁰
April McClain Delaney MD-6
Her campaign website says online protections for children must keep improving so their health and well-being are not harmed.³¹
Christina Bertrand Hines MI-10
Her education topic page says she supports phone-free schools and that children are safer with simpler phones than smartphones before high school and with no social media before age 16.³²
John James MI Governor
His campaign website says he would work with the Legislature on a Michigan App Store Accountability Act to keep children from reaching age-restricted material through app stores and give parents more control.³³
Sam Forstag MT-1
His campaign website says he would limit the way social media platforms use algorithms that amplify outrage and aim advertising at children, which it says can be done without censorship or limits on free speech.³⁴
Herb Conaway NJ-3
His campaign website lists, among his accomplishments, that he is now leading an effort to protect children from the harms of social media use.³⁵
Joe Hathaway NJ-11
His campaign platform says Congress should set guardrails for social media and technology to protect children's mental health and safety, and that he would fight algorithms and AI-driven targeting that take advantage of minors.³⁶
Deb Haaland NM Governor
Her public safety plan says she would work with experts on a framework to help young people deal with social media's harms, and her plans support keeping smartphones out of classrooms.^37,38
Tina Kotek OR Governor
Her campaign website says she would limit social media access on school-issued devices, and says she issued an executive order banning cell phones during the school day.³⁹
Annie Andrews SC Senate
Her campaign website says she would protect children from social media addiction and online exploitation, including by getting phones out of schools.⁴⁰
Marsha Blackburn TN Governor
Her campaign website says the state should give parents tools to protect children online and require independent audits of whether social media platforms address risks to kids, and she proposes banning student cell phones for the entire school day.^41,42
Amanda Janoo VT Governor
Her campaign website says she would require independent audits of large recommendation systems and restrict design practices meant to drive compulsive use, especially for children.⁴³
Tom Tiffany WI Governor
His campaign website says he would support age-verification requirements for app providers, strengthen parental consent protections and tighten school cellphone limits for the full school day.⁴⁴