Press Release: National Poll Shows Overwhelming Bipartisan Support for Holding Social Media Companies Accountable for Harms to Children

Washington, D.C. – February 5, 2026 – The federal law governing legal liability for online content is 30 years old this week – and research shows that 73% of voters want it changed. Polling released by the nonprofit education and advocacy organization, the Institute for Families and Technology (IFT), finds overwhelming and bipartisan public support for changing existing laws so that social media companies are held accountable when they allow prohibited or illegal content on their platforms, especially when that content harms children and teens.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 was enacted to protect internet companies from being held liable for user-created content. Passed eight years before Facebook was created, the law has since been used asa shield by social media companies to avoid liability for harm enabled by their platforms, a protection almost no other American industry enjoys.

“American voters overwhelmingly want a rewrite of this 30-year-old law that has protected massive social media companies and endangered American kids,” said John Cusey, Executive Director of the Institute for Families and Technology (IFT). “It is way past time to remove what is a dangerous and unfair government subsidy—and replace it with meaningful protections.”

The survey of 800 registered voters nationwide, conducted by GQR and American Viewpoint on behalf of IFT, found that:

• ‍The majority of voters (73%) support changing the law to hold social media companies accountable for prohibited or illegal content on their platforms, including 81% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans.‍
• Support is even higher in situations where social media companies knew wrongdoing occurred but did not intervene
  
  • 82% support accountability if a child underage 13 is harmed and the platform knew the user’s age but failed to obtain parental consent.‍
  • 82% support accountability if the platform knowingly profited from prohibited or illegal content that a user posted.‍
  • 80% support accountability if the platform design allows adults and children to interact and predators can use the platform to easily access, manipulate, and abuse children and teenagers.‍
  • 79% support accountability if a platform has critical information about a child's or teenager's wellbeing or immediate safety, such as mental health problems, and fails to provide help or alert parents‍
  • 77% support accountability if the platform does not block drug dealer accounts and then report them to authorities

The poll also reveals widespread concern about the impact of social media on young people. Only 13% of voters believe social media is good for children and teens, and even the youngest voters agree – only 15% in the 18-29 age group say social media is good for kids. Trust in tech companies is similarly low: just 11% of voters give tech companies a score of 8 or higher on a 0–10 trust scale when it comes to prioritizing child safety, while three-quarters rate their trust between 0 and 5.

Survey methodology: GQR and American Viewpoint conducted a 20-minute mixed-mode text-to-web and online survey among 800 registered voters in the United States from October 22-27, 2025. The survey used voter file sample to reach text-to-web respondents and contacted online respondents from a panel sample of United States residents, who were then matched to the voter file to verify their eligibility. There are 332 parents of children under age 18, 296 parents of children between ages 5 and 18, and 239 parents of children between ages 11 and 18. If this entire survey was based on a probability sample, the margin of error would be +/- 4.5 percentage points for the full sample and +/-7percentage points for the parents subsample.

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About the Institute for Families and Technology (IFT)

The Institute for Families andTechnology (IFT) is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to supporting the movement to prioritize children's safety, health, development, and overall wellbeing in the design and use of digital technology.