Q&A: Bipartisan Victory for Kids

Q&A: Bipartisan Victory for Kids

With U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley

Q: What's included in the online safety legislation adopted by the Senate 91-3?

A: In the first update to internet safety legislation in a quarter century, the U.S. Senate passed historic bipartisan legislation on July 30 designed to hold Big Tech accountable, stop child exploitation, rein in abusive business practices and sharpen tools for parents to protect their children online. I've heard from parents across America who are desperate to help prevent other families from experiencing the anguish they have endured, including Iowa families who bravely participated in a congressional field hearing in Des Moines to raise public awareness and implore Congress to do something about illicit drugs, including online sales, that killed their children. Parents have shared heartbreaking stories of their kids who have lost their lives to drug overdose, died by suicide, experienced cyberbullying, or suffered sexual exploitation, eating disorders, depression and other harms linked to their activity online.

Earlier this year, I participated in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where leaders of five social media companies testified and answered pointed questions about their business practices and design decisions that have addicted young users to their platforms. Adolescents' average daily use is nearly 5 hours a day. The U.S. Surgeon General attributes social media with fueling a mental health crisis among youth in America. My takeaway from the hearing was more needs to be done to prioritize children's online safety and hold Big Tech accountable. As young people spend more time online than ever before, they are being targeted more than ever before, anonymously behind screens, with no accountability for inappropriate content appearing on their feeds. The momentum for legislative action continued to gather steam, pushed by more than 200 advocacy groups and a grassroots army of parents. That's how the Kids Online Safety Act earned overwhelming support since I was among the original co-sponsors in 2022. It's testament to the parents who never gave up and put together a strong coalition. Their kids were being harmed, and in many cases became a life or death situation for these families. The package establishes new rules governing online platforms, including social media websites, social networks, multiplayer online video games, social messaging applications and video streaming services likely to be used by minors. Specifically, it creates guardrails for advertising, algorithms and data collection to protect kids and teens. It would require social media platforms to give minors options to protect their privacy, such as disabling addictive product features and opting out of algorithmic recommendations. It also would create a duty for online platforms to prevent harms to minors, give parents new controls and require platforms to conduct an annual audit to assess risks to minors. Importantly, platforms would be required to enable the strongest privacy settings for minors by default, not as an opt-in feature.

Q: What privacy protections are updated to protect minors?

A: The bipartisan package includes updated privacy protections legislated in the Children and Teens' Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) that I also co-sponsored. The digital landscape has changed tremendously since Congress enacted the first COPPA in 1998, the only online privacy law for children under age 13. COPPA 2.0 beefs up privacy protections to put the brakes on Big Tech business practices that are fueling the mental health crisis among young people. Specifically, the updates would expand COPPA protections to users age 13 to 16 and prohibit companies from collecting personal information without their consent; ban targeted advertising to children and teens; create an "Eraser Button" that empowers young people to delete posts and personal information; and, prohibit excessive collection of data on children and teens. Although today's younger generations are growing up as digital natives, parents and policymakers have seen enough evidence about the negative impacts on mental health and exploitation of young people online. With every click, swipe and like, young users create a digital footprint that Big Tech uses to monetize to advertisers and bad actors use to prey on vulnerable young people. COPPA 2.0 would help guard against the manipulation and exploitation of our youngest generations. The Senate-passed bill must be taken up by the House of Representatives before it goes to the White House for the president's signature. In the meantime, I'll keep pushing for Senate action on additional child protection bills I helped pass through the Senate Judiciary Committee that enhances reporting requirements and strengthens tools for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute child sexual exploitation and abuse.

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