The House Energy and Commerce Committee has advanced two high-profile child safety bills that could reshape much of the web: the Children’s Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Youth Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). Despite dissatisfaction with KOSA’s last-minute changes, particularly those aimed at quelling ongoing criticism, the proposed law passed by voice vote.
KOSA and COPPA 2.0 will give government agencies more regulatory powers over technology companies whose users are under 18 years old. The former imposes a “duty of care” on major social media companies, making them potentially liable for harm caused by underage users. The latter increased the enforcement deadline of the 1998 COPPA law and added new rules around topics such as targeted advertising. Versions of both bills passed the Senate in July. Now that they’ve passed House committees, they can be voted on on the floor, after which they may need to be reconciled with their Senate counterparts before being delivered to President Joe Biden’s desk — where he has said he will sign .
Earlier this year, it was unclear whether KOSA would receive a vote in the House. Although the bill passed the Senate overwhelmingly, blackjack news Reports indicate House Republicans are concerned about the bill. However, the House version of KOSA differs significantly from the Senate version, and many lawmakers have expressed a desire to make changes before the full House votes. Both KOSA and COPPA 2.0 underwent last-minute changes in committee, leading some lawmakers to protest or withdraw support.
The House’s KOSA amendment changes a host of harms that large social media companies should prevent. It removes the duty of care to mitigate “anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance use disorders and suicidal behaviour” and adds a duty to stop “the promotion of inherently dangerous behavior that is likely to cause serious bodily harm, serious emotional distress”. die.
The change drew harsh criticism. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said he would “reluctantly” vote for the bill, complaining that the amendment could lead to regulators reviewing potentially “disturbing” content. “Doesn’t all political speech cause some kind of emotional distress to those who disagree with it?” he argued. (Crenshaw supports a blanket ban on social media use by teenagers.) Instead, many lawmakers worry that removing conditions like depression would make the bill do nothing to address the alleged harm of social media to children’s mental health.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., a KOSA co-sponsor who supports the amendment, said the amendment provides a “weakened” version of the bill and is intended to bring it to the full House for a vote. But neither version appears to satisfy critics, who say the bill could allow regulators to pressure companies to ban children from accessing content that certain governments don’t like. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and others worry that a Republican president might suppress abortion and LGBTQ+ content, while some Republican lawmakers worry that a Democratic president might suppress it. be opposed to– Abortion messaging and other conservative rhetoric.
The COPPA 2.0 vote was less controversial. But Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., challenged a House provision that would allow parents to obtain information about teenagers’ social media use from website operators, even against their children’s wishes. Pallone warned that the rule could allow abusive parents to monitor their children’s access to the Internet. “In a bill that purports to provide more privacy protections for teens, it seems to me that Congress is creating a backdoor that will allow their parents to snoop on every teen click they make online,” he said. “Teenagers have a right to privacy, too.”
