Senators Launch Effort to Limit Kids’ Social Media Access at School, Promote Parental Limits on Screen Time

Sens Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ted Budd (R-NC) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) introduced legislation to limit children's access to social media at school by requiring schools receiving federal broadband funding to prohibit access on subsidized services, devices, and networks. The senators’ new legislation, The Eyes on the Board Act, comes as the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on October 19 to expand the E-Rate program to fund Wi-Fi on school buses, even though Congress explicitly confined the FCC’s E-Rate authority to classrooms and libraries. The Eyes on the Board Act would: 

• Limit kids’ use of distracting and addictive social media apps or websites at school by prohibiting schools or school districts from receiving E-Rate or Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) subsidies unless they prohibit access to social media on subsidized services, devices, and networks; 
• Promote parental limits and transparency on screen time in schools by requiring schools receiving E-Rate subsidies to adopt a screen time policy as a condition of receiving federal funding; and
• Provide parents and the public with needed transparency by requiring the FCC to create a database of schools’ internet safety policies.