Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) reintroduced their Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) Tuesday.
The proposal would create a duty for social media platforms to prevent and mitigate harm to minors by targeting content promoting self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse and other potentially harmful topics.
Meanwhile, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) will reintroduce COPPA 2.0, or the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for Markey.
COPPA 2.0 would update data privacy rules for minors and add new regulations, such as banning targeted advertising to children.
The version set to be introduced Wednesday updates Markey’s previously introduced legislation by expanding protections to teens up to age 16, compared to the previous 15-year-old limit, his office said.
Both KOSA and COPPA 2.0 advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee last year with bipartisan support but failed to receive a floor vote.
At the same time, a new proposal introduced last week by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) would set a minimum age of 13 to use social media apps and require parental consent for kids aged 13 through 17 to use them.
The bipartisan Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, though, is facing pushback from a coalition of children’s online safety advocates that said the bill could infringe on teens’ freedom online and puts the onus on parents rather than on the powerful tech companies.
Danny Weiss, chief advocacy officer of children’s media safety nonprofit Common Sense Media, said the proposal — which mirrors bills adopted in Arkansas and Utah — “is not just missing the mark on what needs to be done, but it’s also potentially harmful to kids.”
“If you don’t change the way the sites are operated and change the way data is stored, collected and sold, then once a parent gives consent for a child to go on social media, they’re in the same cesspool of the internet we’re in today,” Weiss told The Hill.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
