WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Tuesday to protect children from hazardous online content, advancing the first major effort in decades by Congress to hold technology companies more accountable for the harm they cause.
The bill, which passed by a vote of 91 to 3, was pushed by parents whose children have committed suicide after being bullied online or have otherwise been harmed by online content. It would force companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on online platforms commonly used by minors, and to exercise their “duty of care” to ensure that they always apply the safest settings.
The House has not yet voted on the bill. Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican of Louisiana) has said he is “committed to working toward consensus” but has not said whether he will bring the bill up for a vote. Supporters hope the mighty vote in the Senate will prompt the House to act before the end of the congressional session in January.
President Joe Biden called on the House of Representatives to send him the bill “immediately.”
“Today, our children are exposed to a Wild West online, and our current laws and regulations are not enough to stop it,” Biden said. “It’s past time to act.”
The bill is designed to allow children, teens and parents to “take back control of their lives online,” said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who co-authored the bill with Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. He said the message to large tech companies is: “We no longer trust you to make decisions for us.”
The bill would be the first major regulatory package for the tech sector in years and could potentially pave the way for further legislation that would strengthen online privacy laws or set parameters for the increasing apply of artificial intelligence, among other things. While there has long been bipartisan support for the idea that the largest tech companies should be subject to greater government oversight, there is little agreement on how to do it. Congress passed a bill earlier this year that would force China-based social media company TikTok to sell or face the threat of a ban, but that bill targets only a single company.
“This is a good first step, but we still have a long way to go,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y.
If the Child Safety Act comes into force, companies would be required to limit the harm done to children, including bullying and violence, encouraging suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and advertising illegal products such as drugs, tobacco or alcohol.
This would require social media platforms to provide minors with options to protect their data, disable addictive product features and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations. They would also need to limit other users’ communications with children and restrict features that “increase, maintain or extend” platform apply – such as auto-playing videos or platform rewards.
The idea, say Blumenthal and Blackburn, is that the platforms are “secure from the ground up.”
“The message we’re sending to big tech companies is that kids are not your product,” Blackburn said at a news conference as the Senate passed the bill. “Kids are not your source of profit.”
Several technology companies, including Microsoft, X and Snap, support the bill, but there has also been criticism pointing to a possible lobbying campaign aimed at the House of Representatives.
Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel at NetChoice, a technology group that represents Google, TikTok and Meta Platforms as well as X and Snap, said in a statement that the bill’s “cybersecurity, censorship and constitutional risks continue to go unaddressed.” He did not provide further details.
And Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it supports the development of standards but would prefer if app stores were legally required to obtain parental consent when teenagers download apps.
Blumenthal and Blackburn have said they want to put the onus on companies, not parents, and have tried to strike a balance between forcing companies to take more responsibility for what children see online, and ensuring Congress doesn’t go too far in regulating what individuals post – an attempt to head off potential legal challenges to free speech.
However, some critics say the bill still goes too far. The American Civil Liberties Union said the bill could threaten users’ privacy and compared it to “book bans and censorship laws in the classroom.”
“The House must block this dangerous bill before it is too late,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior counsel at the ACLU.
Some advocacy groups have also raised concerns that the bill could harm children who would not have access to information on LGBTQ+ issues or reproductive rights – although the bill has been revised to address some of these criticisms and major LGBTQ+ groups are not opposing the legislation.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a passionate and longtime advocate for free speech online, said he voted against the bill because he feared censorship of LGBTQ+ teens’ health information and the possibility of lawsuits against encryption services that support juvenile people protect themselves from sex predators.
The bill also proposes an update to children’s privacy laws that prohibit online companies from collecting personal information from users under the age of 13. That age will now be raised to 17. Targeted advertising to teenagers will also be banned. There will also be an “eraser button” that can be used to delete the personal information of minors.
Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey sponsored the original bill in 1998 – the last time Congress passed a child online safety law – and worked with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on the update. Markey said the online space has “come a long way” since the bill was first introduced and that novel tools for parents are needed as teens struggle with mental health issues.
While their bill took several months to pass, Blumenthal and Blackburn worked closely with parents of children who had been harmed by social media – whether through cyberbullying or social media challenges, blackmail attempts, eating disorders, drug dealing or other potential dangers.
Maurine Molak, the mother of a 16-year-old who committed suicide after “months of relentless and threatening cyberbullying,” said she believes the bill could save lives and urged all senators to vote for it.
“Anyone who believes that the well-being and safety of children should take precedence over the greed of big tech companies should sign this historic legislation,” Molak said.
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Ortutay reported from San Francisco.
