House Commerce Committee Approves Bills to Protect Children Online

Posted on by Vaseline

Lawmakers introduced the bills hoping they would be voted on before the November elections.

The House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 18 introduced two bills aimed at protecting children’s safety and privacy online.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) requires social media companies to improve their platform design to prevent physical violence, sexual exploitation and the promotion of drugs.
Another bill, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, would expand the age limit for protected minors from 13 to 16 and require social media platforms to obtain consent from users ages 13 to 16 before collecting their personal information. It would also ban advertising targeted to children and teens.
Both bills passed the Senate in late July by a 91-3 vote. The White House said the measures “will finally encourage bold action to hold Big Tech accountable.” It urged Congress to send them to the president’s desk “without delay.”

The House version of KOSA differs from the Senate version in that it strips away key responsibilities from tech companies. These include removing designs that could cause “addictive behavior” in young users and preventing the spread of harmful content on their sites, such as content about suicide, eating disorders, bullying and drugs.

Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) introduced the first version in April, with Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) and Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) as original co-sponsors. The committee reviewed an updated version that included Bilirakis’ amendment.

Related Stories

Senate Approves Bills to Protect Children's Safety and Privacy Online
Senate Approves Bills to Protect Children's Online Safety and Privacy

Castor, one of the original sponsors of the KOSA bill, called the House’s updated version “weakened” compared to what the Senate passed in July.

“We cannot allow unintended consequences to creep in because there was last-minute politics with KOSA,” she said during the committee meeting on Sept. 18. “I don’t know if I could support this version if it came up in the House in this way.”

She expressed hope that the language of the bill can be changed. “I think in the spirit of what we need to do as responsible legislators, we need to move forward today with the understanding that we should probably move to the Senate version of the bill and not go backwards at this point,” she said.

Other Republican lawmakers expressed the same sentiment: The bill needed to be moved out of committee to have a chance to be considered by leadership for a floor vote.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) supported KOSA, saying it has “some good provisions” that give parents tools to guide their children’s social media use.

However, he worries that the bill would give the Federal Trade Commission too much authority, since the agency would have the power to regulate how social media companies design their algorithms. He argues that algorithms and content go hand in hand, and so algorithm regulations will almost inevitably spill over into content moderation.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocate, has expressed concern that government officials would have “dangerous and unconstitutional power” over lawful online content if it is deemed harmful. The foundation said Bilirakis’ amendment to the original Senate bill does not fully address this problem.

A day before the committee meeting, Meta announced new accounts for teens on its platform Instagram. These accounts would offer stricter security measures and require parental consent to relax the default settings.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in an advisory last year that excessive use of social media can lead to anxiety and depression. In June, he called for warning labels on social media platforms, similar to those on tobacco products.
Three out of four voters favor a warning label for social media, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released June 26.

If passed, KOSA will authorize the warning proposed by Murthy.

Avatar for Vaseline
Vaseline https://newspowergreen.biz.id

You May Also Like

More From Author