119-hr5173

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5173 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 5173

To require social media companies to use geofencing to block access to 
their social media platforms on K-12 education campuses, and for other 
 purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 September 8, 2025

 Ms. Craig introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To require social media companies to use geofencing to block access to 
their social media platforms on K-12 education campuses, and for other 
 purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``No Social Media at School Act''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO BLOCK ACCESS TO SOCIAL MEDIA ON K-12 EDUCATION 
 CAMPUSES.

    (a) Requirement.--A social media company shall use geofencing to 
block access to their social media platform on a K-12 education campus 
during the regular school day (as determined by the local educational 
agency associated with such campus), except for any push notification 
that includes a weather alert, an amber alert, and other uses from 
emergency responders for public safety purposes.

    (b) Protections for Privacy.--Nothing in this section may be 
construed to require--

    (1) the affirmative collection of any personal data with 
 respect to the age of users by a social media company that the 
 company is not already collecting in the normal course of 
 business; or

    (2) a social media company to implement an age gating or 
 age verification functionality.
            (c) Enforcement.--

    (1) Enforcement by federal trade commission.--
        (A) Unfair and deceptive acts or practices.--A 
 violation of this section shall be treated as a 
 violation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act 
 or practice prescribed under 

section 18

    (a)

    (1)
        (B) of the 
 Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a

    (a)

    (1)
        (B) ).
        (B) Powers of the commission.--
            (i) In general.--The Federal Trade 
 Commission shall enforce this section in the 
 same manner, by the same means, and with the 
 same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though 
 all applicable terms and provisions of the 
 Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et 
 seq.) were incorporated into and made a part of 
 this section.
            (ii) Privileges and immunities.--Any person 
 that violates this section shall be subject to 
 the penalties, and entitled to the privileges 
 and immunities, provided in the Federal Trade 
 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.).
            (C) Authority preserved.--Nothing in this section 
 shall be construed to limit the authority of the 
 Commission under any other provision of law.
            (d) Enforcement by State Attorneys General.--

    (1) In general.--
        (A) Civil actions.--In any case in which the 
 attorney general of a State has reason to believe that 
 a covered platform has violated or is violating this 
 section, the State, as parens patriae, may bring a 
 civil action on behalf of the residents of the State in 
 a district court of the United States or a State court 
 of appropriate jurisdiction to--
            (i) enjoin any practice that violates 
 subsection

    (a) ;
            (ii) enforce compliance with subsection

    (a) ;
            (iii) on behalf of residents of the State, 
 obtain damages, restitution, or other 
 compensation, each of which shall be 
 distributed in accordance with State law; or
            (iv) obtain such other relief as the court 
 may consider to be appropriate.
        (B) Notice.--
            (i) In general.--Before filing an action 
 under subparagraph
        (A) , the attorney general of 
 the State involved shall provide to the 
 Commission--
            (I) written notice of that action; 
 and
            (II) a copy of the complaint for 
 that action.
            (ii) Exemption.--
            (I) In general.--Clause
            (i) shall 
 not apply with respect to the filing of 
 an action by an attorney general of a 
 State under this paragraph if the 
 attorney general of the State 
 determines that it is not feasible to 
 provide the notice described in that 
 clause before the filing of the action.
            (II) Notification.--In an action 
 described in subclause
            (I) , the 
 attorney general of a State shall 
 provide notice and a copy of the 
 complaint to the Commission at the same 
 time as the attorney general files the 
 action.

    (2) Intervention.--
        (A) In general.--On receiving notice under 
 paragraph

    (1)
        (B) , the Commission shall have the right 
 to intervene in the action that is the subject of the 
 notice.
        (B) Effect of intervention.--If the Commission 
 intervenes in an action under paragraph

    (1) , the 
 Commission shall have the right--
            (i) to remove the action to the appropriate 
 United States district court;
            (ii) to be heard with respect to any matter 
 that arises in that action; and
            (iii) to file a petition for appeal.

    (3) Construction.--For purposes of bringing any civil 
 action under paragraph

    (1) , nothing in this section shall be 
 construed to prevent an attorney general of a State from 
 exercising the powers conferred on the attorney general by the 
 laws of that State to--
        (A) conduct investigations;
        (B) administer oaths or affirmations; or
            (C) compel the attendance of witnesses or the 
 production of documentary and other evidence.

    (4) Actions by the commission.--In any case in which an 
 action is instituted by or on behalf of the Commission for 
 violation of this section, no State may, during the pendency of 
 that action, institute a separate action under paragraph

    (1) against any defendant named in the complaint in the action 
 instituted by or on behalf of the Commission for that 
 violation.

    (5) Venue; service of process.--
        (A) Venue.--Any action brought under paragraph

    (1) may be brought in--
            (i) the district court of the United States 
 that meets applicable requirements relating to 
 venue under 

section 1391 of title 28, United 
 States Code; or
            (ii) a State court of competent 
 jurisdiction.
        (B) Service of process.--In an action brought under 
 paragraph

    (1) in a district court of the United States, 
 process may be served wherever defendant--
            (i) is an inhabitant; or
            (ii) may be found.

    (e) 

=== Definitions. ===
-In this section:

    (1) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal 
 Trade Commission.

    (2) Geofencing.--The term ``geofencing'' means a virtual 
 boundary maintained by a social media platform.

    (3) K-12 education.--The term ``K-12 education'' means an 
 elementary school or secondary school (as such terms are 
 defined in 

section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 
 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)).

    (4) Local educational agency.--The term ``local educational 
 agency'' has the meaning given such term in 

section 8101 of the 
 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
 7801).

    (5) Social media company.--The term ``social media 
 company''--
        (A) means a company that runs a social media 
 platform; and
        (B) does not include--
            (i) an organization not organized to carry 
 on business for its own profit or that of its 
 members; or
            (ii) an educational agency or institution 
 (as defined in 

section 444 of the General 
 Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 
 1232g

    (a)

    (3) )).

    (6) Social medial platform.--
        (A) In general.--The term ``social media platform'' 
 means a public-facing website, online service, online 
 application, or mobile application that--
            (i) is directed to consumers;
            (ii) collects personal data;
            (iii) primarily derives revenue from 
 advertising or the sale of personal data; and
            (iv) as the primary function provides a 
 community forum for user-generated content, 
 including messages, videos, and audio files 
 among users where such content is primarily 
 intended for viewing, resharing, or platform-
 enabled distributed social endorsement or 
 comment.
        (B) Limitation.--The term ``social medial 
 platform'' does not include a platform that, as the 
 primary function for consumers, provides or facilitates 
 any of the following:
            (i) The purchase and sale of commercial 
 goods.
            (ii) Teleconferencing or videoconferencing 
 services that allow reception and transmission 
 of audio or video signals for real-time 
 communication, provided that the real-time 
 communication is initiated by using a unique 
 link or identifier to facilitate access.
            (iii) Crowd-sourced reference guides such 
 as encyclopedias and dictionaries.
            (iv) Cloud storage, file sharing, or file 
 collaboration services, including such services 
 that allow collaborative editing by invited 
 users.
            (v) The playing or creation of video games.
            (vi) Content that consists primarily of 
 news, sports, sports coverage, entertainment, 
 or other information or content that is not 
 user-generated but is preselected by the 
 platform and for which any chat, comment, or 
 interactive functionality is incidental, 
 directly related to, or dependent on the 
 provision of the content provided by the 
 platform.
            (vii) Business, product, or travel 
 information including user reviews or rankings 
 of such businesses, products, or other travel 
 information.
            (viii) Educational information, 
 experiences, training, or instruction provided 
 to build knowledge, skills, or a craft, 
 district-sanctioned or school-sanctioned 
 learning management systems and school 
 information systems for the purposes of schools 
 conveying content related to the education of 
 students, or services or services on behalf of 
 or in support of an elementary school or 
 secondary school, as such terms are defined in 
 

section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 
 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
            (ix) An email service.
            (x) A wireless messaging service, including 
 such a service provided through short message 
 service or multimedia messaging protocols, that 
 is not a component of, or linked to, a social 
 media platform and where the predominant or 
 exclusive function of the messaging service is 
 direct messaging consisting of the transmission 
 of text, photos, or videos that are sent by 
 electronic means, where messages are 
 transmitted from the sender to the recipient 
 and are not posted publicly or within a social 
 media platform.
            (xi) A broadband internet access service 
 (as such term is defined for purposes of 
 

section 8.1

    (b) of title 47, Code of Federal 
 Regulations, or any successor regulation).
            (xii) A virtual private network or similar 
 service that exists solely to route internet 
 traffic between locations.
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