As the new Congress has already started working on legislation to protect kids from social media harms, Roblox is doubling down on its efforts to convince lawmakers it shouldnât be lumped in with products like Instagram and YouTube.
Even though the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) failed to become law last year, despite passing handily in the Senate, protecting kids from social media still seems to be one of the few issues that unites many Democrats and Republicans. Itâs not yet totally clear what kind of legislation will be viable this year or what role (if any) the Trump administration will try to play. But last week, the Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA), a bipartisan bill that would bar kids under 13 from making social media accounts and restrict platforms from implementing recommendation algorithms for kids under 17.Â
Most mainstream social media platforms say they donât make their services available to kids under the age of 13. But Roblox is one of the few large internet platform companies that openly hosts young people on its services, which it promotes as a good place for kids to learn technical and social skills. Roblox is an …