Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a bipartisan coalition of 45 attorneys general urging Congress to pass the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill aimed at establishing nationwide safeguards for children and teenagers using social media and gaming platforms.
In a November 3 letter sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the attorneys general expressed their continued support for Senate Bill 1748 and called on lawmakers to advance the legislation.
Skrmetti led the effort alongside Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, and Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson. The coalition includes attorneys general from 41 additional states and jurisdictions.
“The Meta settlement was an important step, but we need a lasting, nationwide standard that protects kids on every platform,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “Congress should pass the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act and give parents, children, and state AGs the tools necessary to make the online world safer.”
In the letter, the attorneys general argued that while the recently announced settlement with Meta represents a significant step toward protecting children, an agreement with one technology company cannot guarantee consistent safeguards across the entire industry.
“Although the safeguards in this historic settlement are significant, they should not be viewed as a conclusion but rather as evidence that further action is necessary,” the attorneys general wrote.
The coalition also warned that Congress must establish protections that can address emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence products increasingly used by children.
“We must work together to foster a safer digital environment for future generations,” the coalition wrote.
KOSA would establish minimum safety standards for social media and gaming platforms through a Duty of Care provision requiring companies to take steps to protect young users from online harms.
The attorneys general said the provision would create a lasting standard that can adapt as technology and platform features evolve, while preserving states’ authority to enact and enforce additional protections.
U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have championed KOSA in Congress since introducing the legislation in 2022.
In August, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced the bipartisan legislation by voice vote.
“For years, heartbroken parents have demanded Congress take action to protect America’s children from Big Tech’s exploitation, and today is a major victory for the courageous families who refused to give up,” Blackburn and Blumenthal said following the committee vote, adding that they looked forward to getting the legislation to the president’s desk.
The renewed push for federal legislation follows a $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms announced in August, resolving litigation brought by states over allegations that Instagram was deliberately designed to encourage addictive use among children and teens while concealing potential mental health harms.
Tennessee is expected to receive nearly $752 million from the settlement, with most of it going to the state’s newly established Children’s Digital Protection Fund.
The agreement requires Meta to implement significant safeguards for users under 18 on Facebook and Instagram, including daily screen-time limits, mandatory breaks, restrictions on nighttime use, limits on certain push notifications, stronger protections against bullying, and additional controls addressing eating disorders, suicide, and self-harm content. The settlement also strengthens parental controls and limits certain social-comparison features.
Despite the historic settlement, Skrmetti told The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy in an August interview that federal legislation establishing a duty of care for technology companies would provide the strongest long-term protections for children online.
“In the long run, federal legislation is the best way to guarantee that the platforms behave right,” Skrmetti said at the time. “And if there’s a duty of care built into the law, that’s gonna get us better outcomes in the long run.”
He also suggested the Meta settlement could prompt broader changes across the technology industry, saying, “I think you’re going to see dominoes fall very quickly here,” and emphasized that Meta was only the beginning of his office’s efforts to hold technology companies accountable.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
