Senate advances bipartisan bills to protect minors online

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act and sent them to the House of Representatives. The bills, approved in a 91-3 vote, aim to protect children from targeted advertisements and give parents more oversight of their children’s online and social media activity.

What else, exactly, do the bills do? The Kids Online Safety Act requires social media platforms and other websites to set up safeguards to protect children from cyberbullying and sexual exploitation. Parents would have to be given some oversight of the children’s activity, under the legislation. It also prevents online platforms and social media companies from exposing minors to advertisements for tobacco and other harmful products. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., co-sponsored KOSA.

The Children and Tens Online Privacy Protection Act would prevent social media platforms from giving out minors’ personal information to companies for targeted advertisements. They would also grant minors the ability to delete personal information about themselves that social media platforms have gathered. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sen. Bill Cassidy’s, R-La., sponsored the bill known as COPPA 2.0.

What happens now? The House of Representatives will now consider the bills and decide whether to bring them to a floor vote. If approved by the House the bills will head to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

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