VIDEO: Blackburn, Blumenthal, Schumer, Cruz, Castor Celebrate Overwhelming Senate Passage of Kids Online Safety Act

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) held a virtual press conference with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Representative Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) following Senate passage of the Kids Online Safety Act, the first major reform to the tech industry since 1998. 91 Senators from across the political spectrum voted in favor of the legislation.

Click hereto download video of the press conference.

Senator Blackburn: Our Kids Must No Longer Be the Product on Social Media Platforms

"This has been a big day in the U.S. Senate."

"The Kids Online Safety Act is one of those pieces of legislation that you can say, 'the time is right for that.'"

"The Kids Online Safety Act will do a few things that need desperately to be done. It will require safety by design. It will require a duty of care from these social media companies. It will give parents and kids a toolbox so they can better protect themselves and open these algorithms so that people will be able to see what is happening in these algorithmic black boxes."

"We know that when our kids are online, they have become the product of social media platforms, and this is a way to put in place protections that are needed."

Senator Blumenthal: Senate is Breaking the Grip of Big Tech by Passing KOSA

"For the first time in almost three decades, Congress is taking action to protect against abuses on the internet, and we're doing so by breaking the grip of Big Tech."

"We're in the midst of a mental health crisis. We know it - not only from the statistics nationally - but from our neighborhoods and communities and our own families. That mental health crisis is aggravated and exasperated by social media."

"This kind of empowerment is immensely important through the tools that disconnect from those algorithms and disable the addictive features."

"Today is, indeed, a momentous and historic day. We need to go forward from here to push over the next finish line and make sure that we get this done."

Leader Schumer: Parents are the Reason We Have Succeeded

"I want to thank Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn… for the tremendous work they did to get us here."

"Even more important, I want to thank the parents who tirelessly advocated for these bills, who shared the stories of their kids, who basically turned their grief into immense grace."

"There is no pain worse and suffering for a parent than losing a child. But they made their children's memory a blessing."

"Now, the Senate has done its job; the House should do the same and move KOSA when they return."

Senator Cruz: There is No First Amendment Right to Target Kids for Abuse

"This is a real bipartisan victory. This is legislation that was much needed, and there was an enormous amount of work to get these bills ready to go, to make them effective."

"The phones that we give our children are a portal to just about every evil force on the face of the planet, whether it is predators who are deliberately targeting them… or whether it is Big Tech profiting off of pushing harmful content to them."

"This is a real shot across the bow of Big Tech."

"There is no first amendment to target kids for abuse. There is no first amendment right of liquor companies to try to get children to drink alcohol. There is no right of illicit drug dealers to try to sell drugs to children… You don't have a right to target and abuse children, and this is designed to create tools to fight back against that."

Representative Castor: Passing KOSA Should Be Top Priority for the House

"Americans are hungry for this kind of bipartisan leadership."

"This reform is so critical. It is absolutely urgent that we provide families with tools to combat what Big Tech is selling. They want to addict our kids."

"We know that social media is a contributing factor to the mental health crisis among our youth."

"Passing the Kids Online Safety Act is job one now for the House… We don't have time to put this off any longer. We understand the harms. We know that safety by design is simply fundamental in today's world."

BACKGROUND:

• Senators Blackburn and Blumenthal first introduced the Kids Online Safety Act in February 2022 following reporting by the Wall Street Journal and after spearheading a series of five subcommittee hearings with social media companies and advocates on the repeated failures by tech giants to protect kids on their platforms.

• KOSA would require platforms to enable the strongest privacy settings by default, force platforms to prevent and mitigate specific dangers to minors, provide parents and educators new controls to help protect children, and require independent audits and research into social media companies.

• Click here to learn more about KOSA and here for a list of some of the 240+ organizations that have endorsed the bill.

RELATED:

• Blackburn, Blumenthal Celebrate Senate Passage of the Bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act

• What They Are Saying: Championing Senate Passage of the Kids Online Safety Act

https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2024/8/video-blackburn-blumenthal-schumer-cruz-castor-celebrate-overwhelming-senate-passage-of-kids-online-safety-act