Katie Britt and John Fetterman push for social media guardrails for young people

Britt said they are approaching legislation on the topic “not as Democrats or Republicans, but as concerned parents.”

The senators’ comments came during a Common Ground event, part of an NBC News franchise bringing together leaders with different perspectives to focus on solutions to pressing issues.

In a separate interview at the Washington event, Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said social media has contributed to an increase in toxicity and polarization in Congress.

“I mean just social media, I think everything has changed, right? It’s made work more miserable,” Malliotakis told NBC News’ Ryan Nobles.

She recounted the backlash she received on social media after siding with Democrats and a handful of Republicans to pass a House measure that would restore temporary protections for Haitians living in the United States, essentially rebuking a key part of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Dingell added that “social media is, without fail, one of the worst things that has happened to this country.”

On the legislative front, Britt and Fetterman discussed teaming up on two bills that would put in place safeguards to protect youth mental health and regulate social media.

Britt introduced the “Stop the Scroll Act” in the Senate last year, a bipartisan bill that would require social media platforms to display a mental health warning label. Fetterman co-sponsored the bill, alongside Democratic Senators Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Republican Senator Jon Husted of Ohio.

Fetterman and Britt are also co-sponsors of the “Kids Off Social Media Act,” introduced by Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. The measure would require children’s platforms and schools to implement restrictions on social media use, including banning children under 13 from creating accounts.

Neither bill was put to the Senate for a vote.

Britt said that when it comes to areas where the United States wants to have the upper hand, this is one area “where we are not.”

She added: “Other countries have stepped up and picked up the slack, and we’re still kind of overtaking it, and now is the time to do something.”

Fetterman explained how social media contributed to his mental health struggles, which he spoke openly about, after his election to the Senate in 2022.

He said he avoids spending too much time on social media. “When I made the mistake of doing that after I won my election, that’s when things really got worse and depression set in,” he said.

Britt recounted how she visited Fetterman at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as he sought treatment for depression in 2023.

“John has more courage, and the strength he showed in that moment is something that I hope everyone in America watches and learns from,” Britt said. “And for him to trust me enough to be in that space with him, I will always want to be worthy of that trust.”

Britt said she struck up a fast friendship with Fetterman when they were freshman senators in 2023, shortly after he won his 2022 election in a ruby ​​red state by more than 35 percentage points and Fetterman won by nearly 5 points in a battleground state.

The senators also discussed their positions on the Iran war, with both saying they would vote to keep the United States in the conflict. Fetterman is a Democratic exception in this regard. He is consistently the only Democrat to join Republicans in voting against war powers resolutions that would limit Trump’s actions in Iran.