Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz told parents and advocacy groups who rallied at the Capitol on Tuesday for passage of the Kids Online Safety Act that his committee would advance that bill and others designed to protect children in the digital space.
“If we do nothing else in Washington, we need to be protecting our kids,” the Texas Republican said, noting he is proud to fight alongside “moms and dads who are energized for change.”
Mr. Cruz did not provide a time frame for the committee to mark up the legislation, but said it will feature four bills, including one he has sponsored to prevent social media platforms from hosting children under 13.
A Commerce Committee spokesperson said a date for the markup has not yet been set.
Tuesday’s rally was led by mothers who have lost children to suicide or drug overdoses related to online activity.
It was purposely timed near Mother’s Day to draw attention to the gift they want in their children’s absence: enactment of the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA.
“KOSA is the most effective, thoroughly vetted and bipartisan federal online safety bill for children ever written,” said Cheryl Brown.
Ms. Brown’s daughter McKenna died by suicide at age 16 after relentless cyberbullying on social media, including an incident in which her peers shared private text messages that outed her as a rape survivor.
She said KOSA’s duty of care provision would hold social media platforms liable for purposely designing products that promote addictive use and harm children.
“This means companies like Meta, Snap, TikTok and others would be legally required to mitigate harms, such as cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, illegal drug use, eating disorders and suicide,” Ms. Brown said.
The parental advocates are focused on pushing the Senate to act on KOSA because it is that chamber’s version of the bill, led by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, that they support.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has dropped the duty of care provision from its version of KOSA, which it approved in March as part of a broader package of bills called the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act.
Mr. Cruz did not say whether the bills his committee will mark up will be packaged together or advanced separately.
One of the bills the senator named, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy and Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0, already passed the Senate by unanimous consent earlier this year, but lawmakers have been discussing an updated version that can also clear the House.
COPPA 2.0 expands a 1998 law that restricts the online collection, use, and disclosure of children’s personal information, applying the limits to teenagers ages 13 to 16 unless they provide consent for internet companies to collect their data.
It also adds new data minimization rules and seeks to crack down on loopholes that Big Tech may exploit to continue abusive data collection.
In the previous Congress, the Senate combined KOSA and COPPA 2.0 into one package. It passed 91-3. The bill, however, has stalled in the House.
Mr. Cruz wants to expand that effort with the Kids Off Social Media Act, his bill to prevent children under 13 from having social media accounts. The House committee debated that idea but there was not consensus.
The eventual Senate markup will also include a bill Mr. Cruz introduced last week to require AI companies to establish family accounts for parents to manage their children’s use of chatbots.
Mr. Blumenthal was skeptical of the all-of-the-above approach.
“We don’t need more bills. We need KOSA,” he said.
The senator cited jury verdicts from two cases earlier this year that found Meta and YouTube liable for online harms as evidence Big Tech is “guilty of killing children.” The companies are appealing the cases.
Mr. Blumenthal said KOSA’s duty of care will codify the legal liability and force social media companies to change their business models — “not out of the goodness of their heart, but simply because they’ll begin losing money.”
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