MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark joined 44 other attorneys general Tuesday in a bipartisan letter urging Congress to pass the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act, legislation meant to strengthen online protections for children and teenagers, her office said.

The letter to congressional leaders backs the Senate bill, which would set minimum safety standards for social media and gaming platforms while preserving states' authority to pass and enforce their own laws protecting children online, according to Clark's office.

The push follows a $17 billion multistate settlement with Meta that requires the company to adopt safeguards for users under 18 on Facebook and Instagram, including daily time limits, restrictions on nighttime use, stronger protections against bullying, limits on certain potentially harmful content and expanded parental controls.

In the letter, the attorneys general argue that those safeguards, while significant, cannot provide consistent protections across the technology industry. They pointed to the bill's duty-of-care provision, which they said would set a lasting standard for all social media and gaming platforms that would outlast the settlement and adapt as technology changes.

Since 2021, state attorneys general have investigated major social media platforms over concerns about addictive design features and their effects on children's mental health, according to the release. Those investigations led to lawsuits against Meta and other companies over practices the attorneys general allege harmed young users.

The effort was led by the attorneys general of Hawaii, Ohio, Tennessee and Connecticut. Attorneys general from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island also signed, along with those from dozens of other states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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