WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Senate today voted 91-3 to pass a pair of children’s online safety bills designed to hold technology platforms accountable for safeguarding children who use their services.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed voted in favor of the bill, which combines the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and as the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0).  The bipartisan legislation now needs to pass in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, which is currently on recess until September, before it could be sent to President Biden’s desk to become law.

Reed, who was a cosponsor of KOSA, urged the House to follow the Senate’s bipartisan lead to provide parents with improved tools to protect children’s safety and privacy online; hold big tech platforms accountable, and mitigate social media practices aimed at keeping kids online and promoting addictive behavior.

“It is past time for Congress to better protect minors online from the dangers associated with the use of social media platforms.  There can and should be commonsense, appropriate guardrails to help parents protect their kids online while also upholding civil liberties and free speech.  Today, the Senate came together on a bipartisan basis to strengthen children’s online privacy and safety laws and give parents more tools to protect their kids.  After healthy debate and careful consideration, this targeted, bipartisan legislation would protect children’s privacy and restrict algorithms from pushing harmful content and endless scrolling onto kids.  It would hold social media companies accountable for their actions and crack down on the practice of targeting teens with manipulative content,” said Senator Reed.

The Kids Online Safety Act would require companies to default to stringent privacy and safety settings, rather than putting the onus on youth and parents to navigate through complicated platforms.  Tech companies would be required to “exercise reasonable care” to prevent their products from endangering child users, including through design features that could exacerbate depression, sexual exploitation, bullying, harassment and other harms.  It also would require online companies to provide guardians with more control over minors’ use of a platform and prevent certain features, such as autoplay.  And it would require these companies to offer a dedicated page on which users can report harmful content. 

COPPA 2.0 modernizes the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998.  COPPA 2.0 would institute basic privacy protections for users under age 13, strengthen data privacy rights, and target Big Tech’s underlying incentive to keep young people scrolling, clicking, and ‘liking’ content online for as long as possible.  This legislation would prohibit internet companies from collecting personal information from teenage children without their consent and it would ban targeted advertising to children and teens.  It would also help create an ‘Eraser Button’ by requiring companies to permit users to delete personal information from a child or teenager when technologically feasible.

According to a recent study led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube collectively derived nearly $11 billion in advertising revenue from U.S.-based users younger than 18 in 2022.

“Social media has the potential to both do good and cause harm.  Congress has a responsibly to ensure social media platforms are doing their part to protect children and adolescents and hold them accountable if they refuse to comply with basic standards and best practices,” said Senator Reed.  “Congress must also go above and beyond to uphold free speech.  This bill takes a balanced approach.  It does not regulate what people can post or infringe on freedom of expression.  It ensures parents have the right to insist on the safest settings possible for their kids if they use social media,” concluded Reed.

Companion legislation to KOSA has already been introduced in the House by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and a companion to COPPA 2.0 has been introduced by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI).