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Rob Sand Releases Plan to Keep Iowa Kids Safe Online

For Immediate Release

Contact: press@robsand.com

Rob Sand for Iowa

7/27/2026

Rob Sand Releases Plan to Keep Iowa Kids Safe Online

DES MOINES, IA — Today, nominee for governor Rob Sand released a series of proposals to help keep Iowa kids safe online and hold Big Tech companies accountable.

“Nothing is more important than keeping our kids safe, and today, that increasingly means figuring out how to keep them safe online. As a dad and former prosecutor, this has always been my top priority. That’s why today I’m releasing a comprehensive plan that aims to help keep Iowa kids safe online,” said nominee for governor Rob Sand. “That starts with getting them offline and focused on just being kids. As governor, I’ll build on my record of keeping kids and communities safe across our state by holding Big Tech companies accountable for exploiting and profiting off of our kids.”

  • Banning Social Media Accounts for Kids: Banning social media use for children under 16, and requiring parental consent for 16 and 17 year olds. One method is App Store Accountability, a law passed in Utah in 2025. This law calls for:

    • Age Verification and Parental Consent: Puts the onus on the App Store and individual app creators to verify age of the app purchaser and require parental consent for those under the age of 18.
    • Parent Account Affiliation & Verifiable Parental Consent: If someone under the age of 18 tries to make an app purchase, this requires the child’s account to be affiliated with that of the parent’s.
    • Notifications for Significant Changes to Apps: Require the App Store to update the user on any significant changes to the app that would impact what a child would view, see, or do on that app.
    • Additional Developer Requirements: Increase requirements for developers to verify age of users and ensure parental consent.
    • Data Safeguards: Ensure the protection of data for users and share only pertinent age information with app developers.

  • Requiring Independent Audits of Social Media Algorithms: Independent audits of social media companies to outline how their algorithms work so we can see if they are targeting children with addictive content and ensure safety standards are being met.

  • Eliminating “Infinite Scroll” and Limiting Screentime for Kids: Infinite scroll has been found to be addictive, compared to tobacco use. Rob supports barring social media companies from implementing “infinite scroll” on accounts of children under 16, and would require these platforms and app makers to give adults the option to opt out of infinite scroll. All companies should also have phones and other devices programmed with screentime-limiting functions built in.

  • Banning Surveillance Advertising and Increasing Privacy: Social media companies should not be surveilling and targeting kids based off of their personal data, search history, or political or religious beliefs. Rob also supports increasing privacy measures, including prohibiting the sale of minors’ data and targeted advertising to minors.

  • Increasing Punishments for Online Predators: Social media companies have made it too easy for sexual predators to prey on our kids online. As governor, Rob would support increasing punishments for online sexual predators who target our kids, including making sure our law enforcement officials have the training and resources they need to investigate these crimes; requiring social media platforms to use proactive detection and reporting to identify predators; and hold Big Tech companies accountable for any products that sexualize children.

  • Enforcing Default Privacy Settings: Minors’ accounts must be private by default, with geolocation off, adult-to-minor DM restrictions on, and high-privacy defaults for discovery and recommendations.

  • Increasing Resources for Cyberbullying: As governor, Rob would work with the Department of Education and local districts to ensure that schools have policies in place that hold cyber bullies accountable and provide resources for victims of cyberbullying. We also need to do more to crack down on sexual extortion and AI deepfakes. Rob would encourage our federal representatives to pass the James T. Woods Act, backed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, and to hold the Big Tech companies accountable for the harms they have knowingly caused and largely ignored, and will work on this at the state level as well.

Read Rob’s full plan here.

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