Senate Passes Bipartisan Bill Meant to Protect Children’s Online Safety
The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday that is designed to protect children from dangerous online content, pushing forward with what would be the first major effort by Congress in decades to hold tech companies more accountable for the harm that they cause.
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00:00It was 1998, the last time this body took up and passed a bill that became law
00:10that protected children in the virtual space, and a lot has changed since then.
00:17We've seen the emergence of social media.
00:20We've seen 100 million Americans born during that period of time.
00:28So thinking about these platforms and that emergence,
00:34when you think about Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and TikTok
00:40and online video games, those interactive games that are pulling kids into those,
00:49you think about how social media has changed the lives and the exposure of children today.
01:02They have grown up in this.
01:04Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Mr. Bozeman, Mr. Braun, Mrs. Britt.
01:13On this vote, the ayes are 91, the nays are 3, and the motion is agreed to.
01:19Under the previous order, the Senate will resume executive session.
01:22The Senate stands in recess until 2.15 p.m.
01:27Today, the Senate keeps its promise to every parent who's lost a child
01:33because of the risks of social media.
01:36Today, after a lot of hard work, a lot of twists and turns, we'll pass COSA and COPPA.
01:44COSA and COPPA will be the most important updates to federal laws
01:50protecting kids on the Internet in decades, and a very good first step.
01:56For COSA, Blumenthal, and Blackburn fought to give kids and parents the tools
02:01and safeguards and transparency they need to protect our children's health and well-being.
02:08For COPPA, Senator Markey and Cassidy worked to protect the personal information
02:13for children and teenagers and ban targeted advertising aimed at them.
02:19Now we call on the House to pass these common-sense, bipartisan, life-saving bills.
02:28The overwhelming vote we received here on the floor of the Senate
02:32should importune the House to act, and act quickly.
02:36This vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan, as was co-sponsorship of the bill.
02:42At the end of the process, three-quarters of the Senate, evenly divided Republican and Democrat,
02:50co-sponsored the Kids Online Safety Act.
02:54Democracy works.
02:57If we have bipartisan support, we need to pass this measure when kids go back to school
03:04and our congressional colleagues come back to Washington.
03:08I know that House leadership is very interested,
03:12and many in the House have expressed strong support for this bill.
03:17I'm hopeful that we'll have the same kind of overwhelming bipartisan support in the House
03:22as we did in the Senate.
03:24But overall, it is a historic, monumental day.