US House committee reaches bipartisan deal on social media rules for youth

US House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders have reached a bipartisan agreement on legislation requiring social media platforms to provide safeguards for children and parents.

U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders said in a statement on Monday they had reached a bipartisan agreement on legislation requiring social media platforms to ‌provide safeguards and tools for children and parents, a key step in a years-long debate over how to protect children online. Chairman Brett Guthrie and top committee Democrat Frank Pallone declined to release more specific details about the agreement, but said it would "hold Big Tech accountable."

"We worked across the aisle for many months and have now found common ground ‌on policies to significantly improve the digital environment for kids,” Guthrie and Pallone said in a joint statement. Tech companies are under increasing scrutiny in the U.S. ‌for their effect on youth, with parents and state officials pushing to ban phones from schools to limit access. The bipartisan agreement also addresses several contentious issues in the debate over social media regulation. The agreement does not include a "duty of care" provision, a spokesperson for committee Republicans said. Such language would require companies to design social media platforms with children's safety in mind. House Democrats and key Senate Republicans such as ⁠Tennessee Republican ​Marsha Blackburn have long demanded that the "duty of ⁠care" provision" be included in any children's online safety legislation, complicating the bill's path forward. States would be allowed to pass social media laws that provide "greater protection" than those laid out in the ⁠agreement, a win for Democrats who want to preserve those laws. The agreement faces several hurdles before becoming law, including winning support in the Senate and from President Donald Trump. Trump's spokesperson did ​not immediately respond to a request for comment. Speaker Mike Johnson, the top Republican in the U.S. House, supports the agreement, according to a source familiar ⁠with his thinking.

STATE LAWS At the national level, U.S. lawmakers for years have declined to pass comprehensive legislation regulating social media, prompting states to pass their own laws. At least 20 states enacted laws last year ⁠addressing ​social media use by children, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, an organization that tracks state bills. Snap's Snapchat, Meta's Instagram, Google's YouTube and TikTok are the most popular digital platforms for Americans ages 13-17, according to a Pew Research Center report published in December 2025. Meta and Google declined to comment on ⁠Monday on the bipartisan agreement. Snap and TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters previously reported that Meta lobbied the U.S. Congress for legal immunity ⁠from child-harm claims tied to social media products. ⁠Meta, along with TikTok, Google's YouTube and Snapchat are facing thousands of lawsuits accusing them of designing social media platforms that are harmful to young people. If such a provision became law, it could undermine those cases.

Asked about the lobbying effort ‌and the proposed language, Meta spokesperson ‌Stephanie Otway previously told Reuters the provision "does not extinguish existing lawsuits."