Schumer Announces Passage of Federal Protections For Children’s Safety Online
More in Local News:
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Tuesday the passage of two bipartisan bills, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0).
Each bill targets and improves issues related to the online presence of kids and teenagers. KOSA implements more requirements for platforms to create a safe environment, such as letting kids and teens choose to opt out of data sharing and algorithm recommendations. It also allows parents to control how their children’s information is used, requires platforms to create dedicated channels to report harmful behavior, and limits the promotion of harmful content such as suicide and substance abuse, and more.
COPPA 2.0, which builds on its first iteration signed in 1998, prohibits non-consensual data collection from users under 17 years old, an increase in age from COPPA’s legislation. Furthermore, the bill protects teens and children from targeted advertising and ameliorates a requirement established in COPPA which obligates platforms that are “reasonably likely to be used” by kids and teens to protect them if they have “actual knowledge” of their age.
“I’ve heard from so many parents whose kids, sadly, took their own lives because of what happened to them on social media,” Schumer said. “To their everlasting credit, these parents, instead of cursing the darkness, lit a candle. They turned their grief into grace, and we worked together to help get this bill over the finish line, so that what happened to their families doesn’t happen to any others.”
The U.S. Surgeon General released an advisory in June that discussed the impact social media has on youth health, revealing that students who spend three or more hours on social media are twice as likely to have worse mental health. Schumer, a leading advocate for online safety, had to overcome his fellow senators blocking the bills and address their unintended consequences. On Tuesday, each bill passed by a vote of 91-3.
