WASHINGTON — The Senate passed two key pieces of legislation aimed at keeping children safe on the internet Tuesday afternoon, marking a major step in Congress’ ongoing effort to regulate massive tech companies.
The two bills, which beef up privacy protection for children and limit targeted advertisements toward them, passed with overwhelming support by senators from both sides of the aisle, 91-3.
The Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act have been years in the making as advocates — including parents who have lost their children to suicide, drug use, viral challenges and more — have argued there needs to be more guardrails for children and teens on social media.
The bill now heads to the House of Representatives where it will face further consideration.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has not yet committed to bringing it up for a vote but has signaled a willingness to consider it.
“I am looking forward to reviewing the details of the legislation that comes out of the Senate. Parents should have greater control and the necessary tools to protect their kids online. I am committed to working to find consensus in the House,” Johnson said in a statement to ABC News.
The package, if signed into law, would create a “duty of care” that mandates that companies must take reasonable measures to prevent and mitigate harms to children and teens, and gives parents and guardians more control over how their children use social media platforms. They also create privacy protections for those under 17, prohibit targeted advertising for young people and allow parents the power to erase content.
President Joe Biden commended the Senate for taking a “crucial bipartisan step forward” in passing the internet safety bills package.
“There is undeniable evidence that social media and other online platforms contribute to our youth mental health crisis,” he said in a statement. “Today our children are subjected to a wild west online and our current laws and regulations are insufficient to prevent this. It is past time to act.”
Biden encouraged the House to “send this bill to my desk for signature without delay.”
It has been more than a decade since Congress enacted meaningful legislation to protect children on the internet. Federal laws on the books were written before Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok were even invented.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the bills “perhaps the most important updates in decades to federal laws that protect kids on the internet” during floor remarks on Monday afternoon.
“Too many kids experience relentless online bullying. Too many kids have their personal data collected and then used nefariously,” Schumer said. “And sadly, sadly, too many families have lost kids because of what happened to them on social media.”
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., have championed the legislation in the Senate and have been fighting for its passage for years. At a press conference last week, the two were flanked by parents holding photos of their children who have lost their lives due to interactions they had via social media.
One mother, Julianna Arnold, shared the story of her daughter passing after an Instagram drug dealer sold her counterfeit drugs. Another parent, Todd Minor, shared the story of his son who died while participating in a viral challenge he saw on TikTok. Both parents are advocates with ParentsSOS, an organization that advocates for safety for kids and teens online.
Blumenthal, who has helmed a number of hearings about regulating tech, said the legislation is necessary in part because large tech companies have shown that their products cause harm.
“We’ve seen from their own documents, their own files, their own evidence that their business model is to get more eyeballs for longer periods of time, so they get more advertisers and more dollars knowing that those profits are derived from destroying lives, destroying lives of your children,” he said.
Leading tech companies such as Snap, X and Microsoft have all publicly endorsed the legislation.
“The safety and well-being of young people on Snapchat is a top priority. That’s why Snap has been a long-time supporter of the Kids Online Safety Act. We applaud Senators Blackburn, Blumenthal and the 68 other co-sponsors of this critical legislation for their leadership and commitment to the privacy and safety of young people,” Snap said in a statement.
Several tech lobbying groups, however, chastised the bill.
NetChoice called the Kids Online Safety Act “unconstitutional.”
“Parents need solutions that are legal and meaningful, but KOSA is neither. KOSA’s data privacy, cybersecurity, censorship, and constitutional risks remain unaddressed. NetChoice hopes to work with lawmakers in the House to protect minors and families from KOSA’s many issues,” Carl Szabo, NetChoice’s vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
Internet lobbying group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) echoed concerns the legislation could result in tech companies implementing policies that restrict free speech.
“The Senate just passed a bill that will let the federal and state governments investigate and sue websites that they claim cause kids mental distress. It’s a terrible idea to let politicians and bureaucrats decide what people should read and view online,” Joe Mullin, EFF’s senior policy analyst, said in a statement.
Google, which owns YouTube, declined to comment to ABC News. It has said it supports “several important bipartisan bills focused on online child safety,” but not specifically KOSA.
And while Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement, “We support the development of age-appropriate standards for teens online, and appreciate KOSA’s attempt to create a consistent set of rules for the industry to follow.”
“However, we think there’s a better way to help parents oversee their teens’ online experiences: federal legislation should require app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps,” Meta added.
TikTok declined to comment to ABC News.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who voted against the bill, also gave a speech on the floor before the vote, during which he raised concerns about the bill potentially limiting freedom of speech.
“The bill they’ve written promises to be Pandora’s box of unintended consequences,” Paul said. “It is perhaps understandable that those who sit in this body might seek a government solution to protecting children from any harms that may result in spending too much time on the internet. But before we impose a drastic first-of-its-kind legal duty on online platforms, we should ensure that the positive aspects of the internet are preserved. That means we have to ensure that the first amendment rights are protected,” Paul said.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also said voting against the legislation, citing concerns that the bill could restrict certain kinds of speech.
“Unfortunately, KOSA’s improvements, while constructive, remain insufficient. I fear this bill could be used to sue services that offer privacy-enhancing technologies like encryption or anonymity features that are essential to young people’s ability to communicate securely and privately without being spied on by predators online. I also take seriously concerns voiced by the American Civil Liberties Union, Fight for the Future, and LGBTQ+ teens and advocates that a future MAGA administration could still use this bill to pressure companies to censor gay, trans and reproductive health information,” Wyden said in a statement.
Advocates for the legislation challenge those concerns.
“There are endless myths and misconceptions that have been spread,” Blumenthal said. “There’s no censorship in this bill, it is about product design. There is no invasion of privacy in this bill, we have chosen not to collect information from kids.”
