The Senate is setting up a test vote Thursday on legislation designed to protect children who use social media, a rare bipartisan effort months away from Election Day.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer says it’s time to advance a pair of bills, the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, after months of debate about how to meet the challenges of the digital age.
The U.S. surgeon general and others say social media is exacerbating a youth mental health crisis by exposing kids to mature content, worsening their self-esteem or body image and making them feel left out of social cliques.
“Social media has helped hundreds of millions of people to connect in new ways over the last two decades, but there are also new and sometimes serious health risks that come along with those benefits,” said Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat. “We cannot set these risks aside. On this issue, we desperately need to catch up.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, co-sponsored the KOSA bill. It would force online companies to design their platforms and algorithms in ways that keep harmful material from reaching kids.
It would require platforms to be “safe by design” for minors, offering options that shut off automated algorithms, disable features that show addictive products and limit features that let other users talk to children.
Lawmakers in both parties say social media needs more scrutiny, but there has been little action on Capitol Hill. While tech companies such as Microsoft, X and Snap support KOSA, others haven’t taken a position.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican and staunch critic of government overreach, is the most vocal opponent of the bipartisan bill.
“While the bill as written could prevent kids from watching PGA golf or the Super Bowl on social media because of gambling and beer ads, those kids could just turn on the TV and see those exact same ads,” Mr. Paul said. “I have tried to work with the authors to fix the bill’s many deficiencies.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and student advocates on Wednesday urged senators to reject the bill, saying it would make it harder for young users to browse anonymously and might censor protected speech.
“The First Amendment guarantees everyone, including children, the right to access information free from censorship,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU. “We urge lawmakers to protect young people by listening to their concerns and voting no on the bill that could be used to silence them.”
The separate bill from Sens. Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, and Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, would prohibit online platforms from collecting certain information from users 17 or younger, up from the current threshold age of 13.
It’s unclear whether House GOP leaders will take up the bills before the election. For one thing, lawmakers are about to leave for a lengthy August recess, pushing likely action closer to the Nov. 5 election.
The House could wait for the post-election session to act, though Senate sponsors say there is little time to waste.
“Congress has not passed a bill — a law has not been signed — since 1998 to protect our children in the virtual space,” Mrs. Blackburn said. “We have seen some of the negative effects that this has brought, and we look forward to being able to move this over to the House for speedy consideration.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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