{"id":22843,"date":"2023-05-03T04:31:12","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T04:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9d456aab-835c-4f2e-af21-c12f358b0b7112"},"modified":"2023-05-03T04:31:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T04:31:12","slug":"bipartisan-senate-group-reintroduces-a-revised-kids-online-safety-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/bipartisan-senate-group-reintroduces-a-revised-kids-online-safety-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan Senate group reintroduces a revised Kids Online Safety Act"},"content":{"rendered":"
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US Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced<\/span> a bill today that would put the onus on social media companies to add online safeguards for children. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was first introduced last February<\/span> (sponsored by the same pair) but never made it to the Senate floor after backlash from advocacy groups. The revamped legislation \u201cprovides specific tools to stop Big Tech companies from driving toxic content at kids and to hold them accountable for putting profits over safety,\u201d said Blumenthal. It follows a separate bill introduced last month<\/span> with a similar aim.<\/p>\n

Like the original KOSA, the updated bill would require annual independent audits by \u201cexperts and academic researchers\u201d to force regulation-averse social media companies to address the online dangers posed to children. However, the updated legislation attempts to address the concerns that led to its previous iteration\u2019s downfall, namely that its overly broad nature could do more harm than good by requiring surveillance and censorship of young users. The EFF described<\/span> the February 2022 bill as \u201ca heavy-handed plan to force platforms to spy on young people\u201d that \u201cfails to properly distinguish between harmful and non-harmful content, leaving politically motivated state attorneys general with the power to define what harms children. One of the primary fears is that states could use the flimsy definitions to ban content for political gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The rewritten bill adds new protections for services like the National Suicide Hotline, LGBTQ+ youth centers and substance-abuse organizations to avoid being unnecessarily harmed. In addition, it would make social platforms give minors options to safeguard their information, turn off addictive features and opt out of algorithmic recommendations. (Social platforms would have to enable the strongest settings by default.) It would also give parents \u201cnew controls to help support their children and identify harmful behaviors\u201d while offering children \u201ca dedicated channel to report harms\u201d on the platform. Additionally, it would specifically ban the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and the use of \u201cunlawful products for minors\u201d like gambling, drugs and alcohol. Finally, it would require social companies to provide \u201cacademic and public interest organizations\u201d with data to help them research social media\u2019s effects on the safety and well-being of minors.<\/p>\n

The American Psychological Association, Common Sense Media and other advocacy groups support the updated bill. It has 26 cosponsors from both parties, including lawmakers ranging from Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Blackburn told CNBC today that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is \u201ca hundred percent behind this bill and efforts to protect kids online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the Senators\u2019 renewed optimism about passing the bill, some organizations believe it\u2019s still too broad to avoid a negative net impact. \u201cThe changes made to the bill do not at all address our concerns,\u201d Evan Greer, director of digital rights advocacy group Fight For the Future, said in an emailed statement to Engadget. \u201cIf Senator Blumenthal\u2019s office had been willing to meet with us, we could have explained why. I can see where changes were made that attempt<\/em> to address the concerns, but they fail to do so. Even with the new changes, this bill will allow extreme right-wing attorneys general to dictate what content platforms can recommend to younger users.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ACLU also opposes the resurrected bill. \u201cKOSA\u2019s core approach still threatens the privacy, security and free expression of both minors and adults by deputizing platforms of all stripes to police their users and censor their content under the guise of a \u2018duty of care,\u2019\u201d ACLU Senior Policy Counsel Cody Venzke told<\/span> CNBC<\/em>. \u201cTo accomplish this, the bill would legitimize platforms\u2019 already pervasive data collection to identify which users are minors when it should be seeking to curb those data abuses. Moreover, parental guidance in minors\u2019 online lives is critical, but KOSA would mandate surveillance tools without regard to minors\u2019 home situations or safety. KOSA would be a step backward in making the internet a safer place for children and minors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blumenthal argues that the bill was \u201cvery purposely narrowed\u201d to prevent harm. \u201cI think we\u2019ve met that kind of suggestion very directly and effectively,\u201d he said at a press conference. \u201cObviously, our door remains open. We\u2019re willing to hear and talk to other kinds of suggestions that are made. And we have talked to many of the groups that had great criticism and a number have actually dropped their opposition, as I think you\u2019ll hear in response to today\u2019s session. So I think our bill is clarified and improved in a way that meets some of the criticism. We\u2019re not going to solve all of the problems of the world with a single bill. But we are making a measurable, very significant start.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced a bill today that would put the onus on social media companies to add online safeguards for children. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was first introduced last February (sponsored by the same pair) but never made it to the Senate floor after backlash from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22843"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=22843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}