The Senate on July 30 overwhelmingly approved legislation to protect children’s safety and privacy online.
The legislation passed in a 91–3 vote. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah) voted against the measures.
“The Senate keeps its promise to every parent who’s lost a child because of the risks of social media,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor, calling it a “momentous day” and a “historic moment.” He also urged his colleagues in the House to pass the bills’ companion versions “as soon as they can.”
In addition, KOSA requires social media companies to take measures to prevent the spread of harmful content related to suicide, eating disorders, bullying, and drugs.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who led COPPA 2.0, said on the Senate floor that the passage of the legislation would mean a “momentous step to stand up to the big tech lobbying machine to stop the privacy-invasive business model that exploits young people for profit.” He expressed further concerns about artificial intelligence “supercharging big tech’s algorithms and encouraging platforms to collect more data on young people.”
Both Mr. Schumer and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), author of KOSA, praised parents who lost their children over online harm for turning their grief into action. Both of them spoke of their experience of talking to the mothers. Mr. Blumenthal said one mother’s questions about big tech deeply touched him:
“I’m haunted by one of the moms who said to us early on—I think speaking on behalf of so many of them and us, ‘When will you stop them from killing people? When will you stop them from killing our children?’”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a co-sponsor of KOSA, said more needs to be done but that the bill “goes in the right direction.” As the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, he has urged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to compensate grieving parents.
“We need to allow parents to get their kids’ data back, but it is a step forward to say you can’t track and you can’t target,” he told The Epoch Times on July 29. “It’s a step forward to get parents some enforceable rights.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee and another KOSA co-sponsor, said she was “very concerned about the disregard that large mediums have for the welfare of children.”
“They know that their algorithms are used to target the very young—meaning under age 13 and another bill 13 to 16—with advertising that diminishes the mental health of young people,” she told The Epoch Times.
“They know that, and they’re not dealing with it. And so, when they won’t deal with it, we have to protect children.”
On July 25, senators voted 86–1 to end the debate on the two bills and advance them to the floor. During the procedural vote last week, Mr. Paul was the only one who voted “no.”
He objected to KOSA and said it was too broad. He said it would create a Kids Online Safety Council that he considered “speech police.” He said KOSA would cause “fear of liability, fear of lawsuits” and lead to self-censorship by social media platforms, which in turn would stifle freedom of speech.
Mr. Schumer, though, hailed the bills as a “groundbreaking step toward ensuring our kids’ online safety.”
“It’s not an exaggeration to say these bills will be the most important updates in decades to federal laws that protect kids on the internet. And it’s a very good first step,” he said last week.
While the report doesn’t identify any bills, it recommends “enacting bipartisan federal legislation to protect youth health, safety, and privacy online.” A key recommendation for families is creating a family media plan, including setting screen-free zones and times and discussing social media experiences.
About 95 percent of teenagers and 40 percent of children between 8 and 12 years of age use some form of social media, according to the report.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee still must advance the legislation in the lower chamber.
