This story is about suicide. If you or a loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts, please call 988 or chat with a counselor at 988lifeline.org.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate on Thursday advanced an online safety bill that would protect children from targeted advertising, data collection, bullying and sexual exploitation on popular social media platforms.
But this sporadic, bipartisan move by the Senate members has not gone unnoticed by supporters, who warn that the bill would restrict free speech on the Internet.
The committee voted 86-1 in a procedural vote to advance the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, combining both into a single legislative instrument.
Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only one to vote no.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the “groundbreaking step” immediately before the vote began.
When the bill was received in plenary, it received the support of almost 70 co-signatories, far more than the 60 votes needed for a procedural vote.
The New York Democrat thanked the parents who sat in the Senate gallery to watch the vote – including those who had lost their children to suicide due to cyberbullying – and called them the “true heroes of this effort.”
“We have met, we have felt pain together, we have cried together. What they have been through is unfathomable,” Schumer said. “Today, the Senate says to these parents, ‘We are listening to you, we are taking action.'”
Schumer said the proposal would now be on a “glide path” to final passage next week before the chamber goes into its August recess.
Updates from the 1990s
The proposal partially updates a 1998 law designed to protect children under 13 on the Internet.
The Children’s Online Safety ActCo-sponsored by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, would require social media platforms to take “reasonable measures” to minimize harm when designing products and would also tighten age verification tools.
The bill requires companies to consider “evidence-based medical information” on mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse and suicidal behavior.
The bill would also ban hidden “black box algorithms,” as Blumenthal called them, that are used to target content to minors.
When it comes into force, Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Actco-sponsored by Senator Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, would prohibit social media companies from collecting personal information from minors for targeted marketing purposes.
The law would require companies to provide a mechanism to remove children’s and youthful people’s personal data from platforms.
Members of the Senate Commerce Committee positive passed Both bills passed the committee separately in December.
After the bill is expected to pass in the Senate next week, it will then be sent to the House of Representatives, which has just begun its six-week summer recess.
“I look forward to reviewing the details of the bill as it passes the Senate,” House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said in a statement provided by his office. “Parents should have more control and the tools they need to protect their children online. I will work to find consensus in the House.”
The Internet is “not designed for children”
Continued support from health organizations and concerned parents simplified the long process until the bills finally reached the Senate.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has released a series of videos in which pediatricians explain why they want to advocate for online protections to be passed by lawmakers.
“The Internet was not designed for children – and pediatricians see the impact of social media in their practices every day. That’s why they are raising their voices,” the academy’s materials say.
The organization has long endorsed to protect children and youthful people from addictive social media platforms and targeted digital advertising.
Opposition of the ACLU
The bill continues to face opposition from various interest groups across the political spectrum, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which planned to lobby against the Kids Online Safety Act with hundreds of teenagers on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
“At its core, KOSA is an internet censorship bill that would harm the very communities it is supposed to protect,” Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said in a statement Wednesday.
“The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees everyone, including children, the right to access information without censorship. We urge lawmakers to protect young people by listening to their concerns and voting against the bill that could be used to silence them,” Levenoff said.
Paul, who voted no, called the bill on Thursday “vague,” “bizarre” and a “Pandora’s box full of unintended consequences.”
“While supporters of the bill claim that it is not intended to regulate content, imposing a duty of care on internet platforms related to mental health can only lead to one result: the suppression of First Amendment-protected speech,” Paul said on the Senate floor on Thursday, specifically about the Kids Online Safety Act.
Paul criticized the bill’s creation of a Kid Online Safety Council, which would be housed at the Federal Trade Commission, and called the planned body “language police.”
Blumenthal, Blackburn, Markey and Cassidy rebuked Paul on the Senate floor after he made his comments and proposed an amendment to weaken the bill.
Cassidy described the bills as “bipartisan no-brainers.”
Blackburn contradicted Paul’s statement, saying the bill “took years” to draft.
“We have worked tirelessly for three years to get this bill into shape,” she said.
“Without real and enforceable reforms,” said Blackburn, “social media companies will continue to pay lip service to child protection while putting their profits ahead of the safety of their children.”
