Senate passes online safety bills, future uncertain in House
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Tuesday passed the first significant legislation to protect kids and teens online in more than 25 years.
The bills, known as the Kid's Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act, passed 91-3 with bipartisan support. It now heads to the House, where it's unclear if it can pass given the limited legislative time left in a tumultuous election year.
The legislation marks one of the first major attempts to regulate social media since it became a ubiquitous part of many children and teens' lives.
One of the bills that passed on Tuesday would require social media companies to show that they are taking "reasonable measures" to protect minors from harms online. That includes content that promotes suicide, violence, bullying, eating disorders, sexual abuse, drug use and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
It would also give minors the option to turn off features that encourage "addiction-like" use of the platform and algorithm-based content recommendations. Many of the most popular social media platforms are set up to feed users more of what they interact with, not just all content shared to a site or app.
The other bill would update an existing online privacy law to ban targeted ads for minors, extend privacy protections to users between the ages of 13 and 16, and give parents the ability to delete their kids' personal information from platforms.
Some of the fiercest advocates for the bills have been the parents of children and teens who died as a result of something they encountered online, such as drug overdoses or bullying that pushed them to die by suicide.
"We have to do something," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "These parents have turned their grief into grace. These parents are the reason that we succeeded today."
Schumer urged the House to take up the bills "as soon as they can." House Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed support for the bills. But the lower chamber is only in session for a few more weeks through the end of the year, with long breaks in August and October to allow for campaign work.
While some major tech companies have supported the legislation – including Microsoft, Snap and X – others have opposed it and are likely to challenge it in court if it does become law.
NetChoice, an advocacy group that includes many major tech companies including Google and Meta, called the bill "unconstitutional" in a statement Tuesday.
"Parents need solutions that are legal and meaningful, but KOSA is neither," said NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo in a statement. "KOSA’s data privacy, cybersecurity, censorship, and constitutional risks remain unaddressed. NetChoice hopes to work with lawmakers in the House to protect minors and families from KOSA’s many issues."
LGBTQ groups raised concerns that a previous version of KOSA could be used by certain state attorneys general to censor information about gender and sexuality. The bill was changed to give the Federal Trade Commission the power to enforce the main provisions of the bill on a national level, while allowing state AGs to enforce other parts of it.