Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a long-standing critic, introduced a set of three legislative proposals on Monday. These bills aim to strengthen oversight of social media platforms, enhance protections for children, and impose taxes on major tech companies’ advertising revenue to support educational initiatives.

Auchincloss shared with TIME, “These social media corporations represent the wealthiest, most influential corporations in global history.” He continued, “I believe they have been undermining our civic discourse, engaging in ‘attention fracking’ with our children, and treating our youth as commodities rather than individuals.”

Auchincloss has designated this trio of bills the UnAnxious Generation package, a nod to Jonathan Haidt’s popular book, The Anxious Generation, which details how social media has altered and diminished American childhood. Auchincloss states that the package targets social media corporations’ three primary assets: their legal immunity, the amount of time adolescents spend on their applications, and the vast wealth they accumulate from advertising to children. He asserts, “I’m going directly at their jugular.”

Addressing legal immunity

Firstly, the bipartisan Deepfake Liability Act—co-sponsored with Utah Republican Representative Celeste Maloy—proposes amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This act currently grants broad immunity to digital platforms for user-generated content. The proposed bill would condition this immunity on platforms establishing a duty of care to address deepfake pornography, cyberstalking, and digital forgeries. It also clarifies that AI-generated content would not be covered under Section 230.

Currently, under the Take It Down Act, platforms are required to remove deepfake images and nonconsensual pornography within 48 hours of receiving a report. Auchincloss explains that his bill would shift companies’ responsibility from merely reacting to proactively addressing these harms. This means social media companies would only retain Section 230 immunity if they actively work to mitigate such issues. He comments, “If a company knows it’ll be liable for deepfake porn, cyberstalking, or AI-created content, that becomes a board level problem.”

Taxing digital advertising income

Auchincloss also unveiled the Education Not Endless Scrolling Act, which would impose a 50% tax on digital advertising revenue exceeding $2.5 billion. He clarifies, “This is for the major social media corporations,” explicitly excluding “recipe blogs.” The funds generated would then be allocated to establish a national one-on-one tutoring program in American schools, support a local journalism trust, and create a career and technical education fund for young people.

He contends, “These social media corporations have amassed hundreds of billions of dollars by making us angrier, lonelier, and sadder, and they operate without accountability to the American public.” He advocates, “Let’s tax them, and let’s invest that money into improving the lives of our children, whom they treat as mere products.”

Enhancing protections for young users

Lastly, the bipartisan Parents Over Platforms Act—co-sponsored with Representative Erin Houchin, a Republican from Indiana—aims to close existing loopholes that enable children to bypass age restrictions on social media applications. Presently, many apps, such as Instagram and TikTok, request users’ ages upon registration but lack independent verification methods. Concurrently, critics of internet laws related to age express concerns regarding the privacy implications of children providing personal data across numerous applications.

According to the bill, parents would provide a child’s age to the App Store when configuring their phone. The App Store would then be mandated to communicate this age range to relevant applications, thereby ensuring that children under 13 cannot access restricted platforms.

For Representative Houchin, this legislation holds personal significance. She recounted, “When my daughter was 13, she gained access to a social media platform without our knowledge or consent, circumvented our parental controls, and was communicating with individuals she believed were other 13-14-year-old kids globally.” When Houchin contacted the platform to request the deletion of her daughter’s account, “we were informed that she could legally possess the account at 13, and we had no authority over whether or not she had access to it.”

This sense of powerlessness motivated Houchin to co-lead this bill with Auchincloss, in addition to introducing two other bills designed to enhance the safety of AI chatbots for children. She states, “My objective is to empower parents once more,” and “to close these loopholes that pose a danger to our children.”

The introduction of this legislative package occurs at a time when Congress appears increasingly prepared to address Big Tech. On Tuesday, the Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to conduct a legislative hearing to discuss 19 bills, all aimed at enhancing children’s online safety. The Senate has also reintroduced the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, which garnered overwhelming support in the previous term.

Houchin and Auchincloss are also forming a pioneering Kids Online Safety Caucus to identify bipartisan solutions for protecting children online. Both believe this issue enjoys rare broad bipartisan consensus. Houchin emphasized, “Good policy transcends politics.” She added, “We are Republican and Democrat, yet we agree on this issue, and we are absolutely committed to implementing these safety protocols.”

Auchincloss believes that Americans are growing increasingly frustrated with how Big Tech has monetized children’s attention and expect lawmakers to take action. He attributes the past stagnation in Congress to the significant lobbying influence of Big Tech. However, after consistently hearing from parents about social media’s pervasive impact on their family lives, he believes now is the opportune moment for change.

He concluded, “I prefer not to be passive or await a shift in circumstances.” He stated, “I am striving to be an earthquake.”