Senate to consider bills that aim to protect children and teenagers online
WASHINGTON — The Senate will consider legislation this week that aims to protect children of dangerous online content, and move forward with what could be the first major new regulation of the tech industry in decades.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is set to announce Tuesday that he will bring the bipartisan bill to the Senate, hoping to pass it before the chamber goes into recess in August. The legislation has been stalled for months, even as more than two-thirds of the Senate pledged support and families of children who have been bullied and abused online pushed for its passage.
Schumer says the bill “can change and save lives,” echoing concerns from parents who are committed to protecting their children. They say social media and other technology companies need to do more to prevent suicides and other traumas among children and teens. inevitably spend a lot of time online.
The online safety bill, which the Senate will consider alongside a separate bill to update online privacy laws for children, would be the first major package of tech regulations to be passed in years. While there has long been bipartisan support for the idea of giving the biggest tech companies more government oversight, there is little consensus about how it should be done. Congress passed legislation earlier this year that force Chinese social media company TikTok to sell or risk a banbut that law only targets one company.
The bill’s prospects in the House are unclear so far. But if it passes the Senate with an overwhelming bipartisan vote — as expected — proponents hope it will put pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to bring it up before the November elections or the end of the session in January.
The Child Safety Act came about as Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a Democrat, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, a Republican, worked with advocacy groups for years on compromise legislation designed to hold companies more accountable for what children see, while also ensuring that Congress doesn’t go too far in regulating what individuals post.
The legislation would create a so-called “duty of care” — a legal term that requires companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on online platforms that minors are likely to use. Companies would be required to limit and even prevent harm to children, including bullying and violence, promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and advertisements for illegal products like narcotics, tobacco or alcohol.
To achieve that goal, social media platforms would have to provide minors with options to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations. They would also have to limit other users from communicating with children and restrict features that “increase, sustain, or prolong” platform use, such as auto-play videos or platform rewards.
In general, online platforms should default to the most secure settings for accounts they believe belong to minors. The idea, Blumenthal and Blackburn said, is that the platforms are “secure by design.”
The senators have worked closely with parents of children who have committed suicide after being cyberbullied or otherwise harmed by social media, including dangerous social media challenges, extortion attempts, eating disorders and drug dealing. Schumer said he has spoken with a number of those families in recent months and is “proud to be working side by side with them and bringing legislation to the floor that I believe will pass.”
“I’ve met families from all over the country who have experienced the worst thing a parent can experience: losing a child,” Schumer said. “Instead of retreating into the darkness of their loss, these families lit a candle for others with their plea.”
Some tech companies, including Microsoft, X, and Snap, support the bill. However, opponents fear it would violate the First Amendment and harm vulnerable children who wouldn’t have access to information about LGBTQ issues or reproductive rights — though the bill has been revised to address many of those concerns, and major LGBTQ groups have voted to support the proposed legislation.
Along with the online safety bill, the Senate will also consider bipartisan online privacy legislation from Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Bill Cassidy, R-La. That bill would update current law that prohibits online companies from collecting personal information from users under 13 by raising the age to 17.
The bill also bans targeted advertising to users under 17 and gives teens or their guardians the ability to delete a minor’s personal information.
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Barbara Ortutay, an AP technology reporter in San Francisco, contributed to this report.