Some day soon, the heady days of reconciliation will be a memory. Once they are, a tech issue we expect to go big again is protecting kids online.
Here are the bills that you may have forgotten about, but their supporters certainly haven’t.
KOSA. The Kids Online Safety Act would regulate social media design for the youngest users and impose a “duty of care” for those kids on platforms. It’s a top issue for a lot of youth advocates on and off Capitol Hill.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the KOSA sponsor who might be wrapping up her time in Congress, told a rally on Monday that she’d spoken with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) about the bill earlier in the day.
Neither side had much to say on the specifics, but Guthrie told us Tuesday that the panel could start moving a KOSA measure after July 4.
We’ll remind you that KOSA now has Apple as a supporter. Still, things appear more divided than ever in the House.
COPPA 2.0. The bipartisan bill to boost online privacy protections for teens is due to get a markup in the Senate Commerce Committee today.
The measure, which would extend to teens the protections that already exist for kids under a prior law known as COPPA, did, however, advance through committee last Congress, too.
Sen. Ed Markey’s (D-Mass.) bill also got a boost from Google yesterday.
KOSMA. The Kids Off Social Media Act has already moved through the Commerce Committee, in part because the bipartisan measure is cosponsored by panel Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Cruz told us he views KOSMA as the best way to regulate social media and his priority in the space.
The bill would formally prohibit users under age 13 from using social media and punish platforms that let them on. It’s worth noting current privacy rules have made it so that most websites try not to have kids on them anyway.
STOP CSAM. The measure from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to deal with child exploitation material recently made it through the Judiciary Committee.
It’s another bill that’s fallen short in the past, but Durbin is retiring, and he may want to make it a final-term priority.
App store age verification. The push to get Apple and Google to verify users’ ages is in its earlier stages. The issue is moving quickly in states, however, and it’s backed by a powerful (if uneasy) coalition of outside forces, from kids’ groups to Meta.
Speaking of states, we’re also keeping an eye on the issue of warning labels for social media, which is getting traction in multiple states.
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