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WASHINGTON – A bill to protect children online passed the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, potentially the first update since the overdue 1990s for companies that interact with minors online.
The senators approved the package of two bills in a 91-3 votea rare bipartisan landslide victory in the deeply divided body, despite vocal and passionate opposition from civil rights and LGBTQ organizations who say the measures would give the government the power to subjectively censor content.
The three no votes came from Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
If the House of Representatives Legislative package would require Makers of platforms popular with children and teenagers must comply with up-to-date rules regarding advertising, algorithms and the collection of personal data.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed interest in “working to build consensus in the House.”
President Joe Biden called the Senate vote a “crucial, bipartisan step forward” in a statement on Tuesday and said the bill was consistent with the actions he called for in his first State of the Union address.
“There is undeniable evidence that social media and other online platforms are contributing to the mental health crisis facing our youth. Today, our children are exposed to a Wild West online, and our current laws and regulations are not enough to prevent it. It is past time to act,” Biden said, adding that technology companies “must be held accountable for the national experiment they are conducting on our children for profit.”
Families asked for government support
The package contains two draft laws that are moving forward together: Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Actwhich is primarily aimed at regulating the collection of personal data, and the Children’s Online Safety Acta bill that has been heavily criticized by outside groups.
A bipartisan group of senators points out Years from Hearings and meetings with families struck by tragedy – including those whose children suffered from eating disorders and died by suicide – as motivation behind the proposals.
Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, one of the original sponsors of the Kids Online Safety Act, said the bill is a “safety-by-design law, a duty-of-care law that gives children and parents tools to protect themselves.”
“We are sending a message to big tech: children are not your product, children are not your source of profit, and we will protect them in virtual space,” Republican Blackburn said at a press conference after the vote.
Blackburn co-sponsored the bill, called the Kids Online Safety Act, along with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
Senator Ed Markey, who championed the last protections passed by Congress in the overdue 1990s, said, “In 1998, only birds were chirping, a gram was a unit of weight, so we need to update the law.”
The Democrat from Massachusetts, along with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, supports the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act.
Markey compared addictive social media products to those of the tobacco industry in previous decades and cited health agency warnings that the platforms were responsible for an boost in mental health problems among children.
“We must give parents, teenagers and children the tools to protect themselves, and that is my message to my colleagues in the House of Representatives. We cannot avoid this historic moment,” Markey said at the press conference.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the Senate’s passage of the bill, saying the parents of the affected teenagers were “the reason we succeeded today.”
“I’ve heard horrific stories: kids, teenagers, totally normal, then an algorithm accidentally catches them online and shortly after they commit suicide,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “Imagine being a parent and having to live with that.”
New rules for platforms
The original two bills, which were combined into a single bill, each contain “duty of care” rules that require platform developers to consider broad categories of mental health when designing and operating their products, and prohibit the exploit of personal data for targeted marketing.
The law would also require platforms to create an “easy-to-understand privacy dashboard” detailing how minors’ personal information is collected, used and protected.
Other measures would include a ban on hidden algorithms, mechanisms for minors or parents to delete data, parental controls to limit financial transactions, and annual public reports from platforms on “reasonably foreseeable” harm to children and youthful people and ongoing efforts to prevent it.
enforcement
When the up-to-date guidelines take effect, they will be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and any civil lawsuits will be litigated by states in U.S. district courts after prior notification to the FTC.
The legislation defines online platforms as publicly accessible websites, social media applications, video games, messaging applications or video streaming services that are “used by minors or are likely to be used by minors”.
Snap, the company behind the popular platform Snapchat, issued a statement specifically praising the Senate’s passage of the Kids Online Safety Act.
“The safety and well-being of young people on Snapchat is our highest priority,” a Snap spokesperson said in a statement to States Newsroom. “That’s why Snap has long supported the Kids Online Safety Act. We applaud Senators Blackburn, Blumenthal, and the approximately 70 other co-sponsors of this important legislation for their leadership and commitment to young people’s privacy and safety.”
Opponents see “dangerous” measure
A coalition of organizations supporting First Amendment rights, privacy and the interests of LGBTQ minors urged the House of Representatives to vote against the bill, criticizing it as “blatantly unconstitutional.”
Evan Greer, director of the technology policy group Fight For the Future, also sharply criticized the bill, calling it “dangerous and misguided” and “completely far-reaching.”
The coalition is particularly opposed to the “duty of care” provision of the Kids Online Safety Act, which requires companies to “prevent and mitigate” harm related to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse and suicidal behavior.
During a joint virtual press conference the groups held during the Senate vote, Greer described the provision as “a blank check to censor any content that a government could claim is harmful to children.”
“In practice, this means that under a Trump administration, for example, the FTC could dictate what types of content platforms can recommend or even show to younger users,” Greer said, referring to Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump.
Jenna Leventoff, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Kids Online Safety Act was “nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to censor information that some may find offensive.”
“If KOSA goes into effect, it could lead to information about health care, gender, identity, politics and more being removed from social media. And kids are realizing that censorship is making them less safe, not better,” Leventoff said. “As one student recently told me, they don’t get sex education in school. And if information about sex is removed from the internet because platforms fear liability for hosting it, how else are they supposed to learn about sex?”
Young people in the opposition
The ACLU brought about 300 youthful people to Capitol Hill on Thursday to lobby against the bill.
Dara Adkinson of TransOhio said the legislation was “really frightening.”
Adkinson questioned whether state and federal authorities could argue that content about climate change or the history of slavery in the United States creates fear and should therefore be regulated.
Regarding content about transgender youth, Adkinson said: “We know that there is [are] There are people out there who wish we didn’t exist, and the lack of visibility of the resources available online is the first step for many of those people.”
Greer said the coalition is concerned about the role of “Big Tech” in society. Advocates would support a “heavily modified” version of the Kids Online Safety Act that focuses on regulating business practices including targeted advertising or videos that autoplay and encourage continuous, addictive scrolling behavior.
Greer said her organization is neutral on legislation protecting children’s privacy, but she wants to see comprehensive legislation protecting minors and adults alike.
“Censorship and privacy do not go together, nor should they go hand in hand,” Greer said.
