Real bill currently in Congress c/o S/119/5226
Parental Approval for Youth Social Media Act of 2026
Latest action (2026-08-04): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
What should pass
“AI Consensus Solution”
Children's Account Safety and Parental Consent Act of 2025
Require social media platforms to obtain verified parental consent before children under 18 (or a defined age) can create or maintain accounts, to protect minors from online harms such as data exploitation, exposure to inappropriate content, and predatory behavior.
Bipartisan rationale: Democratic priorities honored: Stronger protections for children's privacy and safety online, closing loopholes in COPPA, and federal enforcement preempting weaker state laws. Republican priorities honored: Narrow tailoring to existing COPPA framework and First Amendment savings clause, no new content mandates or speech restrictions, use of existing FTC authority rather than a new agency, fee-based funding that does not rely on general revenue, and a sunset to force re-evaluation.
Vote-count path: House: ~260 votes (190 D + 70 R from commerce and privacy committees); Senate: ~62 votes (48 D + 14 R from western and tech-skeptic caucuses), with likely cloture and final passage after moderate amendments.