Kids online safety bills to get vote in Senate, Schumer says
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will bring two bipartisan bills aimed at boosting online safety and privacy for kids to a vote this week after mounting pressure from advocates.
Schumer announced during a floor speech Tuesday that the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) 2.0 will be brought to the floor this week, the leader’s office said.
Children’s online safety advocates, including teens and parents of children who died after facing online harms, have been pushing the Senate to act on the bills for years — especially KOSA, which has more than 60 co-sponsors in the Senate, giving it enough support to pass even with filibuster rules in place.
“Over the past few months I’ve met with families from across the country who have gone through the worst thing a parent could endure — losing a child. Rather than retreating into the darkness of their loss, these families lit a candle for others with their advocacy,” Schumer said in a statement.
“It has been long and daunting road to get this bill passed, which can change and save lives, but today, we are one monumental step closer to success,” he added.
KOSA, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), would put in place regulations for how social media companies operate for minors online, aimed at mitigating risks the apps have for making children addicted and impacting their mental health. In part, it would add a duty of care standard to mitigate the promotion of harmful content and addictive features.
COPPA 2.0, led by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), would update privacy standards tech companies need to follow for minors on their platforms. It would also ban targeted advertising to kids online.
The bills face a less certain path in the House. A House version of KOSA was scheduled for a House Energy and Commerce Committee markup in June, but the markup was canceled after GOP House leaders pushed back on a separate bill — the American Privacy Rights Act — that was also slated for discussion at the meeting.
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