Bipartisan KOSA To Get Senate Committee Consideration

The Senate Commerce Committee will move to advance bipartisan piece of legislation to protect minors online by requiring additional privacy controls for teenagers and parents.

The Washington Examiner reports Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have announced that the Kids Online Safety Act will be considered for markup on July 27. The bill would implement several safeguards to protect children and teenagers online, a priority for members of Congress who have said that social media is having detrimental effects on teenagers' mental health.

"This is a huge victory for the dozens of parents and victims of social media that have been relentlessly pushing their representatives on Capitol Hill to protect kids online," the two senators said in a statement.

The legislation would require platforms to take steps to prevent a defined set of harms to minors, including the promotion of suicide, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and drug or alcohol use.

The legislation would also mandate social media companies to implement controls for users, including options for limiting screen time, restricting addictive features, and limiting access to user profiles. The management tools would be set by default to the strictest settings for users younger than 16. Companies would also have to give parents the tools to manage their children's time on the platform.

The latest version of KOSA strips away the need for websites to verify a user's age before giving them access, a policy that tech and privacy advocates have warned against.

States have passed similar bills in the last few months. Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) passed a pair of bills in March that would require age verification for teenagers on social media and ban features that encourage addictive behavior.