Senate Passes Grassley-Backed Bills to Help Keep Kids Safe Online

Senate Passes Grassley-Backed Bills to Help Keep Kids Safe Online

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today voted for bipartisan legislation to protect youth from exploitation online and help rein in Big Tech. The package, which substantially includes the Grassley-backedKids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), passed the Senate by a vote of 91-3. It now heads to the House of Representatives for further consideration.

"Our laws must reflect reality. We live in a highly digital world that leaves internet users, particularly kids and teens, vulnerable," Grassley said. "The Senate's overwhelming support for these measures is a major step towards better safeguarding youth from bad actors hiding behind their screens. Our bipartisan effort stands to help save lives and bring needed accountability to media platforms."

Background:

KOSAwould enhance tools for families to protect their children online and increases transparency around black box algorithms. It additionally creates a responsibility for social media platforms to prevent harmful behaviors and products - such as eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and gambling- from being promoted to minors.

COPPA 2.0 amends a 1998 law that established privacy rules pertaining to individuals up to age 13. Among other provisions, COPPA 2.0 bans companies from pushing targeted ads to young internet users and collecting their personal data without permission.

Grassley's Related Work:

• Grassley in February participated in a question-and-answer session after executives from Meta, Discord, Snap Inc., TikTok and X testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee this Congress has advanced four bills Grassley is co-leading - the Project Safe Childhood Act, the EARN It Act, the STOP CSAM Act and the Cooper Davis Act - to strengthen federal online safety statutes.
• Grassley's Preventing Child Sex Abuse Act and Survivors' Bill of Rights in the States Act recently became law.

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