Senate ready to pass most significant online child safety bills in decades

WASHINGTON — The Senate is poised to pass two bills on online safety for children on Tuesday — a rare sign of bipartisan cooperation in the midst of a volatile and bitter presidential campaign.

But the legislation won’t reach President Joe Biden’s desk anytime soon. The House has just begun its six-week summer recess and will not return to Washington until September 9. And while he supports the “purpose” of the bills, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he is still reviewing the legislation and has not scheduled a vote.

The two bills — known as the Children’s Online Safety Act, or KOSA, and the Children and Adolescents Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0 — represent the most significant action by Congress in decades to regulate the impact of social media. about children and adolescents.

“That’s why we came here — to get things done and to do it in a bipartisan way that will literally save lives,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the state’s former attorney general, who joined Sen. Marsha Blackburn. R-Tenn., about the authorship of KOSA, said in an interview last week.

“What we’re doing is giving parents and kids the tools to disconnect from harmful content, bullying, eating disorders, things that really hurt them, and also imposing a duty of care on Big Tech who for a long time said ‘trust us ‘ and betrayed that trust,” Blumenthal continued. “And now, they will have to comply with a law that imposes on them a duty to mitigate or prevent harm.”

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

COPPA 2.0, written by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., would create stronger online privacy protections for anyone under 17. button for parents and children, requiring companies to allow users to delete information.

Some technology companies, such as Microsoft and Snap, the company that owns Snapchat, have endorsed KOSA. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, offered suggestions on how to improve the bill, while some other social media companies did not take a formal stance.

“We support the development of age-appropriate standards for teens online and appreciate KOSA’s attempt to create a consistent set of rules for the industry to follow,” said a Meta spokesperson. “However, we believe there is a better way to help parents supervise their teens’ online experiences: Federal law should require app stores to obtain parental approval whenever their children under 16 download applications.”

Opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union 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.

But in recent months, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has worked closely with Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and the bills’ sponsors — Blumenthal, Blackburn, Markey and Cassidy – to address concerns and gain support. .

“Today, after a lot of hard work and a lot of twists and turns, we will pass KOSA and COPPA,” Schumer said in a speech Tuesday before the vote. “KOSA and COPPA will be perhaps the most important updates to federal laws protecting children on the Internet in decades. And it’s a very good first step.”

The leader said that social networks bring benefits, but also significant risks to children’s safety. He called on the House to quickly adopt the online safety package when the House returns in September.

“These bills have true bipartisan momentum, so we should seize the opportunity to send them to the president’s desk,” Schumer said.

But the Republican-led House is looking to leave its own mark on the legislation. Before the recess, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, D-Wash., said her entire committee is “planning to move forward” with marking up both bills — a process that could include changes to the bills that would need to be approved. plenary in the House and then in the Senate again before becoming law.

“It’s very important that Congress acts,” McMorris Rodgers, who will retire from Congress at the end of the year, said in an interview.

Meanwhile, Johnson sounded optimistic about passing the bills in the House before Congress ends in January.

“We are analyzing details of this. Obviously, I believe in the purpose of the legislation. I think it’s very important,” said the speaker. “But we have some questions about the details, but I think we can work this out and I’d like to finish.”

KOSA was crafted after a series of emotional and powerful hearings focused on the harms of social media to young people. Parents testified about how social media drove their children to suicide or caused other harm. And senators demanded that social media executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, apologize to parents in attendance while holding photos of their deceased loved ones.

These parents argued “that our children are not a product that can be exploited by these social media companies,” Blackburn said in a joint interview with Blumenthal. “As we were holding the hearings, they introduced themselves, told their stories. They came to us and said, ‘Let’s be a part of this. Let’s help.'”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.