Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to announce in a speech that he will bring the Children Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Youth Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) to the Senate floor this week . This marks the largest step yet in legislation for children’s online safety at the federal level.
“Over the past several months, I have met with families from across the country who have experienced the worst thing a parent can endure – the loss of a child,” Schumer said in a statement. “These families have not. Stuck in the darkness of losing a loved one, I am proud to have worked side by side with them to create legislation that I believe will pass and better protect our children from the consequences of their advocacy. Negative Risks of Social Media and Other Online Platforms. Passage of this bill has been a long and arduous road to change and save lives, but today, we are one step closer to success.
KOSA will impose a duty of care on online platforms to take reasonable steps to mitigate certain harms to minors, require parental controls on minors’ accounts, and block features such as autoplay. COPPA 2.0 will build on existing children’s privacy laws, raising the privacy age from 13 to 17 and prohibiting targeted advertising to this group.
Some advocacy groups, such as Fighting for the Future and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, remain critical of KOSA, fearing it will stifle speech online and potentially limit marginalized children’s access to certain resources on ideological grounds. While other groups, including prominent LGBTQ+ groups like GLAAD and The Trevor Project, had previously worried that KOSA could be used as a weapon against resources for LGBTQ+ youth, they dropped their opposition after the bill’s sponsors made several changes.
Schumer had tried to pass the bills by unanimous consent — a way to quickly pass legislation if no senators objected — but late last year, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced that due to Concerned about the impact of early releases on LGBTQ+ content. Still, these bills have overwhelming support and should be assured of their success in the House, given time to move forward. KOSA, for example, has had more than 60 co-sponsors for several months, clearing the threshold needed to pass the committee.
