Hickenlooper Cheers Senate Passage of Bipartisan Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act

Legislation would protect kids against online risks and prioritize well-being on social media

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, celebrated the Senate passage of the bipartisan online Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act, which will protect children from harmful content online and hold social media companies accountable. The legislation combines the Hickenlooper-cosponsored Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), both of which Hickenlooper helped pass out of the Commerce Committee.

"Social media companies peddle addictive algorithms that put profits over our kids' mental health. We have to hold these platforms accountable to protect our children online," said Hickenlooper.

The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act provides young people and parents with the tools, safeguards, and transparency they need to protect against online harms. The bill requires social media platforms to put the well-being of children first by preventing specific harms to minors and ensuring an online environment that is safe by default. The legislation requires independent audits by experts to ensure that social media platforms are taking meaningful steps to address risks to kids and research by the National Academy of Sciences into the risk of harms to minors by the use of social media.

The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act:

• Requires that social media platforms 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.

• Gives parents new controls to help support their children and identify harmful behaviors, and provides parents and children with a dedicated channel to report harms to kids to the platform.

• Creates a responsibility for social media platforms to prevent and mitigate specific harms to minors, such as promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and unlawful products for minors (e.g. gambling and alcohol).
  
• Requires social media platforms to perform an annual independent audit that assesses the risks to minors, their compliance with this legislation, and whether the platform is taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms.

• Directs the National Academy of Sciences to conduct studies regarding harms to the safety and well-being of minors by use of social media.

The one-page summary of the bills can be found HERE, the section-by-section summary can be found HERE, and the full text of the Senate bill can be found HERE.

The underlying Kids Online Safety Act has attracted 73 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate and is supported by hundreds of advocacy and technology groups, including Common Sense Media, American Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Compass, Eating Disorders Coalition, Fairplay, Mental Health America, and Digital Progress Institute.

Previously, Hickenlooper introduced the Kids Online Safety Act alongside 27 colleagues in May 2023 and helped vote the legislation out of the Senate Commerce Committee last July.

The Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) will update the existing protections to expand privacy protections for children under the age of 17 years old, ban targeted advertising to kids and teens, and create an "eraser button" for parents and kids to control and delete personal information. Current law only protects the privacy of children 12 years or younger.

Hickenlooper continues to urge Congress to pass bipartisan and comprehensive privacy legislation that would extend data privacy protections to individuals of all ages.

The bill now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives next and then President Biden's desk for final signature.

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