HYDE-SMITH, AN ORIGINAL COSPONSOR, VOTES FOR PASSAGE OF KIDS ONLINE SAFETY ACT
U.S. Senate Moves Forward on First Major Internet Safety Legislation Since 1998
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today voted for Senate passage of sweeping legislation intended to establish new standards for holding Big Tech accountable in order to protect children from online dangers.
Hyde-Smith is an original cosponsor of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) which the Senate approved Tuesday on a 91-3 vote. It is the first significant legislation to protect children on the internet since Congress last acted in 1998—well before the widespread use of the internet or smart phones.
“We live in a completely different world than we did 25 years ago in terms of communications and technology. The Senate has now acted to address the dangers our children face from social media platforms by giving parents and their children better tools to protect themselves from those threats,” Hyde-Smith said.
Like the original KOSA, the legislation approved by the Senate continues to;
- Require social media platforms to provide minors with options to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of algorithmic recommendations. Platforms would be required to enable the strongest settings by default.
- Give parents new controls to help support their children and identify harmful behaviors, and provide parents and children with a dedicated channel to report harms to kids to the platform.
- Create a responsibility for social media platforms to prevent and mitigate harms to minors, such as promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and unlawful products for minors (e.g. gambling and alcohol).
- Require social media platforms to perform an annual independent audit assessing the risks to minors, their compliance with this legislation, and whether the platform is taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms.
U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) authored the original KOSA, which has the support of hundreds of advocacy and technology groups like Common Sense Media, American Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Compass, Eating Disorders Coalition, Fairplay, Mental Health America, and Digital Progress Institute.
Read an updated summary of the Kids Online Safety Act here.
The legislation (S.2073), which also includes the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act will be referred to the House of Representatives for consideration.
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