The Senate is expected to pass a bill on Tuesday that Designed to protect children from dangerous online contentadvancing the first major congressional effort in decades to hold technology companies more accountable for the harm they cause.
The bill has broad bipartisan support and was pushed by parents whose children committed suicide after Online bullying. It would To force companies to take appropriate steps to prevent damage on online platforms frequently used by minors and requires them to exercise their “duty of care” and ensure that they generally use the safest settings possible.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who co-authored the bill with Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, said it was about empowering children, teenagers and parents to regain control of their lives online, “and telling big tech companies: We no longer trust you to make decisions for us.”
The House has not yet voted on the bill, but Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican of Louisiana) has said he will look at the bill and try to find consensus. Supporters hope a strong vote in the Senate – a test vote last week advanced the bill by 86 to 1 – will prompt the House to act.
If the bill comes into force, companies would be required to limit harm to children, including bullying and violence, encouraging suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and advertising illegal products such as drugs, tobacco or alcohol.
This would require social media platforms to provide minors with options to protect their data, disable addictive product features and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations. They would also need to limit other users’ communications with children and restrict features that “increase, maintain or extend” platform use – such as auto-playing videos or platform rewards.
The idea, say Blumenthal and Blackburn, is that the platforms are “secure from the ground up.”
In writing the bill, the two senators sought to strike a balance between allowing companies to take more responsibility for what children see online while ensuring that Congress does not overstep its bounds in regulating what individuals post. This is to appease lawmakers from both parties who fear that regulations could infringe on free speech and make any legislation vulnerable to legal challenge.
In addition to First Amendment concerns, some critics have said the legislation could harm vulnerable children who would not have access to information on LGBTQ+ issues or reproductive rights — although the bill has been revised to address many of these concerns and major LGBTQ+ groups have voted to support the bill.
The bill would be the first major regulatory package for the technology sector in years. While there has long been bipartisan support for the idea that the largest technology companies should be subject to greater government oversight, little consensus about how it should be done. Congress passed a law earlier this year that force China-based social media company TikTok to sell or risk a banbut this law only targets a single company.
Some technology companies like Microsoft, X and Snap support the bill. Meta, owner Facebook and Instagram, has not taken a position.
In a statement last week, Snap praised the bill, saying in a statement that “the safety and well-being of young people on Snapchat has the highest priority.”
The bill also proposes an update to children’s privacy laws that prohibit online companies from collecting personal information from users under 13. That age will be raised to 17. Targeted advertising to teens will also be banned. Teens or guardians will also be given the ability to delete personal information from minors.
As the bill has stalled in recent months, Blumenthal and Blackburn have also worked closely with the parents of children who have committed suicide after cyberbullying or have been otherwise harmed by social media, including dangerous social media challenges, blackmail attempts, eating disorders and drug deals. At a tearful news conference last week, the parents said they were glad the Senate was finally moving forward with the bill.
Maurine Molak, the mother of a 16-year-old who committed suicide after “months of relentless and threatening cyberbullying,” said she believes the bill could save lives and urged all senators to vote for it.
“Anyone who believes that the well-being and safety of children should take precedence over the greed of big tech companies should sign this historic legislation,” Molak said.