It's Past Time to Protect Our Children Online

Our nation’s children are paying the price for Congress’s failure to enact effective policies protecting privacy on social media.

In 2019 and 2020, Twitter users were able to view a pornographic video showing the abuse of a 13-year-old 167,000 times. Twitter refused to remove the video, and according to federal law, such cruel negligence is permissible.

Though Congress has thus far failed to take legislative action to protect children from content such as this, it has another opportunity with legislation soon to be debated in the Senate. S. 1409, the Kids’ Online Safety Act (KOSA), aims to address platform problems with social media that endanger children, like predatory algorithms and a lack of transparency, while still allowing children to benefit from the freedoms that come with being online. KOSA includes new privacy protections for children as well as broader restrictions on collecting personally identifiable information (PII). If enacted, the bill would empower parents with more tools and knowledge to make better-informed decisions about their children’s online presence.

This is not the first time that Congress has tried to protect children online. This important bill has been introduced twice before; both times, it cleared committee but was never considered by the full Senate. 

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), one of the bill’s sponsors, said this year that Congress faces a choice after failing to act early. The result of such failure has been more online predators, toxic content, and child exploitation. This year, the bill has more co-sponsors than ever. The American people can’t afford to lose this time around.

The bill would also create a “duty of care” condition to ensure that covered platforms act in the best interests of minors using their platforms by taking reasonable measures to prevent harm. It would encourage development of age-verification practices to make sure that children identifying as such online really are children – and, conversely, that adults using the platforms are also identified properly by age. The bill also would require platforms to make privacy the default setting and to put easy-to-use, readily accessible safeguards in place to protect minors. This necessary bill would empower parents to protect their children online while also promoting platform transparency. Finally, it would also establish a Kids Online Safety Council, whose members would include parents and children.

In terms of data privacy, the United States stands alone among its developed-nation peers in Europe, Australia, and Canada in not having a comprehensive national data privacy law, which leaves all Americans vulnerable, especially children.

Children are more susceptible to exploitation now than ever online. They are being exposed to pornographic and obscene materials at an earlier and earlier age. They are being solicited for sexual material without the knowledge of their parents. More time spent on social media has led to an increase in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and even suicide among children.

It does not have to be this way. KOSA offers tangible steps that Congress can take to protect children online, right now. In the past, when presented with the challenges and harms social media has posed, Congress has failed to do its duty.

For our children, for our nation, and for our future, Congress must step up now.