Bipartisan push heats up to salvage kids’ privacy bill before new Congress is seated

Last week, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and a legion of supporters of the stalled-out Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) rallied on Capitol Hill to urge the House to pass the landmark legislation, which was passed this summer by the Senate with a broad bipartisan 91-3 majority vote.

Elon Musk, owner of X, and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have publicly endorsed the legislation, emphasizing the importance of protecting children online. Their support, along with that of many allies of President-elect Donald Trump, has intensified the pressure on House Republicans to advance the bill.

U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell and Ranking Member Sen. Ted Cruz, and Sens. Edward Markey, Bill Cassidy, Blumenthal, and Blackburn wrote to House Republican leaders urging them to pass the bill before the end of the year. Thirty-two state attorneys general also sent a letter to congressional leadership urging them to pass the bill.

KOSPA would enhance online protections for minors by imposing a “duty of care” on social media platforms to shield young users from harmful content. KOSPA combines two key pieces of legislation, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). COPPA 2.0 bans online companies from collecting personal information from users under 17 without their consent and creates an eraser button to eliminate personal information online. KOSA provides children and parents with the tools, safeguards, and transparency to protect against online harms by establishing a duty of care for online platforms and requires the most protective settings for kids by default.

Despite its strong bipartisan Senate approval, KOSA has encountered challenges in the House, where some Republicans say they are concerned about potential censorship and implications for free speech. To address these issues, last week Yaccarino collaborated with the bill’s authors to update its provisions with yet another version of the bill that aims to alleviate Republicans’ fears of censorship.

“We’ve heard the pleas of parents and youth advocates who seek sensible guardrails across online platforms, and the Kids Online Safety Act addresses that need,” Yaccarino said, adding that, “After working with the bill authors, I’m proud to share that we’ve made progress to further protect freedom of speech while maintaining safety for minors online. We urge Congress and the House to pass the Kids Online Safety Act this year.”

“Led by X, the new changes … strengthen the bill while safeguarding free speech online and ensuring it is not used to stifle expression,” Blackburn and Blumenthal said in a joint statement. “These changes should eliminate once and for all the false narrative that this bill would be weaponized by unelected bureaucrats to censor Americans. We thank Elon [Musk] and Linda [Yaccarino] for their bold leadership and commitment to protecting children online and for helping us get this bill across the finish line this Congress. We appreciate that this endorsement and revised text reflects their publicly stated goal of furthering free speech without fear of censorship. We reiterate X’s call to pass KOSA by the end of the year – it is clear that this legislation has overwhelming support from Congress.”

Blackburn and Blumenthal said the “changes … further make clear that KOSA would not censor, limit, or remove any content from the Internet, and it does not give the Federal Trade Commission or state Attorney Generals the power to bring lawsuits over content or speech, no matter who it is from.”

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said, “we’ve seen firsthand how social media companies prioritize profits over our kids’ safety. While our offices individually pursue investigations and lawsuits against platforms like Meta and TikTok, we are glad to support the Senate’s bipartisan effort to empower our federal enforcement partners. KOSA provides additional tools to protect our children’s mental health from the negative effects of social media.”

Critics, however, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), say even the “last-minute draft remains, at its core, an unconstitutional censorship bill that threatens the online speech and privacy rights of all Internet users.” The advocacy group argues that “the most important update … supposedly minimizes the impact of the bill on free speech. [But] as we’ve said before, KOSA’s duty of care section is its biggest problem, as it would force a broad swath of online services to make policy changes based on the content of online speech.”

Catholic Association Senior Fellow Ashley McGuire said critics like the EFF “incorrectly assert that the bill would censor constitutionally protected speech and empower bureaucrats to prosecute innocent Americans. Instead, the bill would simply require technology companies to enact basic rules of play on their platforms.”

With the current congressional session nearing its conclusion, the urgency for legislative action has intensified. But while the Senate’s decisive vote indicates significant bipartisan backing, the bill’s progression in the House remains uncertain. The limited time left in this session of Congress further complicates its prospects.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed ongoing concerns regarding free speech implications and potential government overreach and has indicated that while the bill’s objectives are commendable, it is crucial to ensure that the legislation does not inadvertently lead to censorship.

The combination of legislative hesitations and time constraints poses significant hurdles to the bill’s passage before the current congressional session concludes. While the bill addresses critical issues regarding children’s online safety and has garnered substantial support, its enactment remains uncertain. However, with support from key Republicans and Trump allies, there’s still time for backers of the legislation to vote on the bill in the House.

Article Topics

age verification  |  COPPA  |  digital identity  |  Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)  |  legislation  |  U.S. Government