The bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act introduced on Feb. 16 by U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) aims to provide families with the tools, safeguards and transparency they need to protect against threats to children’s health and well-being online.
“Protecting our kids and teens online is critically important, particularly since COVID increased our reliance on technology,” said Sen. Blackburn, the original cosponsor of S. 3663, which is sponsored by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
If enacted, S. 3663 would require that social media platforms provide minors with options to protect their information, disable product features, and opt-out of algorithmic recommendations and platforms would be required to enable the strongest settings by default, according to bill summaries provided by Sen. Blackburn’s staff.
Additionally, the bill would provide parents with new controls to help protect children, as well as a dedicated channel to report harm to kids to the platform. Social media platforms also would be required to prevent and mitigate harms to minors, such as promotion of self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and unlawful products for minors, the summary says.
The bill also would require social media platforms to perform an annual independent audit that assesses the risks to minors, their compliance with this legislation, and whether the platform is taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms, according to the summary.
And academic and public interest organizations also would have access to datasets from social media platforms to foster research regarding harms to the safety and well-being of minors under the bill.
Introduction to S. 3663 follows a series of five hearings led by Sens. Blackburn and Blumenthal, who serve on the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security. The subcommittee hearings were held with social media companies and advocates regarding the failures by technology giants to protect kids on their platforms and about the dangers kids face online.
“In hearings over the last year, Senator Blumenthal and I have heard countless stories of physical and emotional damage affecting young users, and Big Tech’s unwillingness to change,” said Sen. Blackburn. “The Kids Online Safety Act will address those harms by setting necessary safety guide rails for online platforms to follow that will require transparency and give parents more peace of mind.”
The legislation has been endorsed by several advocacy and technology groups, including Common Sense Media, the American Psychological Association, and the 5Rights Foundation.