Lawmakers show rare bipartisan unity in pursuing protections for kids online

Lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee found rare agreement at a recent hearing on how Congress can help protect children from online harm.

Tuesday’s hearing, which included a parent who lost a child to suicide after cyberbullying, representatives from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the American Psychological Association, pointed to the importance the new Congress places on protecting children online.

They speak out in support of the Children’s Online Safety Act, which requires sites likely to be accessed by children 16 or younger to maintain certain privacy and safety protections by default. The bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously last year and was considered part of the year-end legislation, though it was not ultimately cut.

“We must and will double down on the Children’s Online Safety Act,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Marcia Blackburn, R-Tenn., said at the hearing.

Both Blackburn and Blumenthal pointed to a recently released 2021 study on youth risks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed mental health is deteriorating. The survey found that 20% of girls and 11% of boys reported being bullied online in the past year.

President Joe Biden is behind the movement for change. Following remarks he made in his State of the Union address last week, Biden said at an event on Tuesday that “we need to pass legislation on harmful technology that affects our children.”

The level of solidarity on the issue is rare in a deeply divided Congress. While lawmakers share similar goals in other discussions about technology regulation when it comes to protecting children online, they are more united on the types of action they want to see happen.

However, KOSA and similar state-level measures have drawn criticism from outside groups, with some arguing that the rules would be too difficult to enforce in a fair and feasible manner.

The groups said last year that vague language requiring platforms to prevent harm to minors could lead to too much content being restricted, cutting off children from important information, especially for the LGBTQ community and others who may have limited places to turn. . They also warn that some parental consent measures can put children who are abused at home at risk.

Evan Greer, director of digital rights group Fight for the Future, tweeted her displeasure with the legislative effort on Tuesday.

“I feel outraged that lawmakers like @SenBlumenthal continue to ignore overwhelming opposition from advocacy groups and push the same problematic bills that we’ve already explained will do more harm than good, and then blame #lobbying on tech companies when not pass,” Greer wrote.

Blumenthal and Blackburn overhauled KOSA last year, but failed to fully win over critics.

Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association, said it’s critical that children protect themselves without depriving themselves of useful resources.

“It’s very important to recognize that online discrimination has a direct effect on mental health,” Prinstein said. “However, it is important to recognize that the online community also provides vital health information and provides social support that can benefit that community.”

All six witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing said they support KOSA and see it as an important step toward protecting children online.

At the end of the hearing, Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., promised panelists a markup of legislation on the topic and said the committee would have to work out jurisdictional issues with the Commerce Committee.

“That doesn’t sound like much, but it is,” Durbin said. “That means we’re going to come together as a judiciary committee and put legislation on the table to try to decide as a committee whether we can agree on common goals.”

Durbin said, “I think we can do that just by feeling what I heard today.”

There’s no shortage of anxiety in Washington, D.C., and beyond surrounding kids on the Internet. US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently said that 13, the current age at which one is allowed to have a social media account, is “too early” to join such platforms.