U.S. Senator from Maine Angus King (I) is renewing his push for his “Kids of Social Media Act,” a bipartisan bill he first introduced last year that would ban children under the age of 13 from social media.

“Children in Maine and across the country deserve protection from the potential harm posed by social media — especially during their most vulnerable years,” said Sen. King in a Tuesday press release.

Though most social media apps already have an age restriction for children under 13 years old, 40 percent of kids between eight to 12 years old access these apps regularly anyhow, proponents of King’s measure argue.

“The bipartisan Kids Off Social Media Act would limit the harmful impacts of social media by establishing reasonable guardrails such as age minimums for new accounts and restrictions on targeting content to children under the age of 17,” King said.

“Our children deserve to grow up in a safe and supportive environment — and that doesn’t define the harsh online tone proliferating on online platforms — so this bipartisan legislation will ensure this protection for generations to come,” he added.

Sen. King was joined in sponsoring the legislation by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ted Budd (R-NC), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Katie Britt (R-Ala.).

King, 80, referred to a 2023 advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General calling for policies to set and enforce minimum age requirements for social media usage, citing various potential negative mental health impacts on children and adolescents from increased social media usage.

Among the issues addressed in the bill, which King first introduced in May 2024, would be a prohibition on social media platformed pushing targeted content to users under the age of 17 through the use of algorithms.

Other measures in King’s “Kids Off Social Media Act” would grant the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general powers to enforce the restrictions in the bill, as well as requiring federally funded schools to block and filter social media platforms on their networks.

King previously attracted criticism for leaning on on Facebook and Twitter to ban social media users who were critical of the junior senator or who followed the accounts of former State Sen. Eric Brakey, King’s opponent during his 2018 re-election bid.