Senate Passes Online Safety Bills in Bipartisan 91-3 Vote
Summary from the AllSides News Team
On Tuesday, with a vote of 91-3, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Act (COPPA).
The Details: KOSA legislation aims to protect minors from exposure to content that may promote harmful ideas and spells out instructions for social media platforms. COPPA focuses more on online advertising, detailing how minors must be shielded from data harvesting, targeting, and tracking without consent.
For Context: The legislation passed the Senate, meaning it moves to the House for a vote next. Online safety is not a new concept, with another bill called the American Data Privacy and Protection Act created by House lawmakers laying out privacy protections for all consumers, not just minors.
Against the Legislation: Not everyone supports the bills, as evidenced by the three opposing senators, who all agreed the legislation does not do enough to protect children online, but rather opens the door for censoring political and religious ideologies, or whatever the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) disagrees with.
How the Media Covered It: Outlets on the right, such as Fox News (Right bias), tended to highlight commentary explaining the bill doesn’t do enough while also voicing concerns over 1st Amendment rights. Left outlets mostly highlighted the majority vote in the Senate, showing pressure is now on the House Republicans, while also showing concerns over LGBTQ+ censorship.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
Senate passes landmark bills to protect kids online, raising pressure on House
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a pair of bills to expand online privacy and safety protections for children on Tuesday, delivering a major win for parent and youth activists who have clamored for action against tech companies they say are endangering the well-being of kids.
The legislation, approved 91-3, would force digital platforms to take “reasonable” steps to prevent harms to children such as bullying, drug addiction and sexual exploitation, and it would broaden existing federal privacy protections to include kids and teens 16 years old and younger.
From the Center
These 3 senators voted against children online safety bills
The Senate overwhelmingly passed two bills intended to strengthen children’s online safety on Tuesday, imposing new rules on what online firms can offer to minors and how they use those children’s data.
Both bills, the Kids Online Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Action (COPPA) 2.0, were approved in bipartisan 91-3 votes.
From the Right
Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Legislation to Protect Children Online, Strengthen Privacy Safeguards
The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to pass two landmark bills meant to protect children from the harms of social media and ensure children’s user privacy is safeguarded.
By a vote of 91-3, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, the most significant tech-regulation package of the past two decades. It remains unclear whether the legislation will pass the House, which is currently on recess until September.
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