Senate passes bipartisan bills to protect children, teens online

By  Anna Merod 

• The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved two bills aimed at protecting children and teens online. Passed in a rare show of bipartisanship, 91-3, the bills now await action in the House.
• Under the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, online platforms would have a “duty” to prevent and mitigate certain dangers to minors, including promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse and sexual exploitation. The bill would also give parents new controls to protect their children online. The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0, would ban targeted advertising to children and teens.
• Education organizations have expressed support for COPPA 2.0, while adding concerns that KOSA could restrict schools’ ability to use ed tech tools. Meanwhile, civil rights groups said they fear KOSA would censor online content for young users.

Senate passage of the two bills follows a recent Biden administration report calling for legislation to protect children and teens online. The administration also sought a ban on advertising targeted at young people and the collection of their personal data.

Prior to Tuesday’s action, the Federal Education Privacy Coalition sent a letter to Senate leadership on Monday strongly supporting COPPA 2.0. The coalition said the measure would enable “schools to provide their students with access to edtech platforms when the school has entered a contract with the edtech vendor and has thoroughly vetted the platform for privacy and security safeguards.”

On the other hand, KOSA stirred doubt from the group, which includes AASA, The Superintendents Association, the Association of School Business Officials International and the Consortium for School Networking and eight other education organizations.

While the coalition praised KOSA’s efforts to establish additional safeguards to protect children and teens online, the group said it was “deeply concerned” that the legislation would hinder schools’ ability to implement ed tech for students. That’s because the bill would allow parents to change the settings and limit screen time of ed tech that schools want students to use, the group wrote. 

Civil rights groups, meanwhile, have taken issue with KOSA as a threat to free expression and privacy. These organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a June 27 letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the “duty of care” provision would “incentivize social media companies to over-filter content over fear of legal risks.”

Specifically, the Federal Trade Commission would have the power to enforce a duty of care requiring social media companies to prevent and mitigate certain harms on young users, including suicide, eating disorders, substance disorders and sexual exploitation. 

However, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a co-author of KOSA, said in a fact sheet that the bill would not prevent children and teens from accessing necessary resources and information online. For instance, KOSA provides explicit protections for mental health resources like the National Suicide Hotline, substance abuse organizations, or LGBTQ+ youth centers.

https://www.k12dive.com/news/kosa-coppa-senate-schools-edtech/722879/