Senate to advance children’s online safety bills this week

WASHINGTON — The Senate plans to vote this week on two bills on online safety for children, a rare moment of bipartisan cooperation just over three months before a heated presidential election.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday afternoon began a procedural vote on social media bills, known as the Children’s Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Child Protection Act. Online Privacy for Children and Adolescents (COPPA 2.0), with an initial vote scheduled for Thursday. A final vote could come next week unless senators from both parties agree to do so sooner.

While the online security package appears poised to pass the Senate, it would also need to pass the House. Republican leaders have also expressed great interest in passing online safety legislation for children this Congress, but it is unclear when that might happen. Lawmakers from both chambers are expected to leave Washington for their August recess in the coming days.

Some technology companies such as Microsoft and Snap, which owns Snapchat, have endorsed KOSA. But other social media companies have not taken a formal stance.

Opponents, including the ACLU and other free speech and civil liberties groups, argue that the bill’s definition of harm is too broad and could lead to censorship of content that promotes politically polarized issues, gender equality or the right to abortion.

In recent months, Schumer has attempted to bring bipartisan online safety bills to the Senate floor by unanimous consent, but those efforts have been blocked by objectionable senators.

Since then, Schumer has worked closely with Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and the bills’ sponsors — Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Ed Markey, D-Mass. and Bill Cassidy, R-La. — to address concerns and gain broader support. KOSA has well over 60 co-sponsors, enough to overcome obstruction from opponents.

Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, Schumer said he spent the last month meeting with parents whose children took their own lives because of their experiences using social media.

“Nothing has galvanized me and so many others here in the Senate more to take action for children’s online safety than coming together with parents who have lost loved ones,” Schumer said. “Some of these children were bullied, others were targeted by predators or had their personal and private information stolen – virtually all of them suffered profound mental health distress in some way and felt they had nowhere to go.”

“And in many cases, their suffering ended in tragedy, as they took their own lives,” he added.

Congress has struggled for more than a decade to regulate Big Tech. These two online safety bills were considered the “low hanging fruit,” the easiest to pass in the Senate and House in a bipartisan manner. The latest push comes shortly after President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that would ban video-sharing app TikTok in the United States after the election unless its Chinese owner sold it.

KOSA, authored by Blumenthal and Blackburn, requires social media companies to provide better protections for users under the age of 17. It also requires companies to give guardians more control over minors’ use of a platform and prevent certain features such as autoplay. And it requires companies to provide users with a dedicated page to report harmful content to the platform.

COPPA 2.0, authored by Markey and Cassidy, would create strong online privacy protections for anyone under the age of 17. It also bans advertising targeted at children and teens and creates an eraser button for parents and children requiring companies to allow users to delete information.

Blackburn, speaking at a news conference Tuesday with Blumenthal, said KOSA was crafted after a series of emotional and powerful hearings focused on the harms of social media.

“As we were holding these hearings, we heard from people who said, ‘I want to tell you my story,’” said Blackburn, flanked by family members of children who took their lives.

Once the bills pass the Senate, what happens next in the House will be less certain. Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, D-Wash., said her entire committee is “planning to move forward” with marking both projects.

“It’s very important that Congress act,” McMorris Rodgers, who will retire from Congress at the end of the year, told NBC News on Tuesday.

Still, an appointment has not yet been scheduled and time is running out before the November elections. The House was supposed to be in session next week, but with government funding bills stalled, GOP leaders could cancel votes next week and send lawmakers on their August recess a week early. If that happens, House members will not return to Washington until September 9th.

House Republican leadership will determine if and when the legislation passes.

Schumer said Tuesday that lawmakers cannot allow any more delays.

“Social media has helped hundreds of millions of people connect in new ways over the past two decades, but there are also new and sometimes serious health risks that accompany these benefits,” Schumer said. “We cannot let these risks slide on this issue – we desperately need to catch up.”