Meta and TikTok are in Congress’s crosshairs over laws that protect children

It seems like the big bipartisan push against Big Tech in the new Congress is about protecting kids. While antitrust and privacy efforts seem to be slowing down, several online safety bills focused on children were introduced this session. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has reportedly signaled that passing them is a priority for him. President Joe Biden recently said the same thing.

And they just might pass, if this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on protecting children online is any indication. Witnesses testified about how children are being harmed by online content and platforms that helped push it to an audience of friendly senators, some of whom created prominent child online safety bills in previous sessions. None of it has become law, but the new Congress seems intent on making one.

For years now, there has been a bicameral and bipartisan consensus in Congress that something needs to be done about the power of Big Tech, but not what and how. Democrats and Republicans can’t even agree on whether Big Tech platforms moderate too much content or not enough. Now, it seems to have found the cause and the victim: children.

The desire to protect children from harm and abuse on the internet is stronger than ever in the 118th Congress, so it’s increasingly clear that at least one piece of legislation needs to be passed. But critics say that, in practice, the bill may not help children, and may come at the cost of free speech and privacy.

At a hearing Tuesday, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) indicated that he is working with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to reintroduce EARN IT, an act from the last Congress that would remove Section 230 protections from online services that do not follow a list of practices the best Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said she and Sen. Blumenthal will reintroduce the Children’s Online Safety Act, or KOSA, which would give children under the age of 16 tools to prevent the amplification of harmful content on social media platforms and their parents. the ability to limit their children’s use of the platform.

“A new Congress, a new start on this,” Blackburn said.

And Sen. Blumenthal, along with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) also just reintroduced the Clean Slate for Kids Online Act, which would require websites to delete data collected from children. at 13 in the request.

This week’s hearing isn’t the only sign that children’s online safety is a priority for the new Congress. Schumer reportedly wants to vote on a children’s online protection bill this summer. And while his administration is also pushing the legislation, President Biden has some things to say about children and the internet in his recent State of the Union address.

“At the end of the day, social media companies have to be held accountable for the experiments they put their children through for profit,” he said. “And it’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data about children and teens online.”

“Ban advertising targeted at children!” Biden shouted over the applause.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also spoke about it. In a call with reporters on Monday, the new ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee said the main focus when it comes to Big Tech legislation is to end the moderation of content that he believes will harm free speech, he said to the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on privacy laws. There is bipartisan support for privacy legislation, Cruz said, and those targeting children are the most likely to get anywhere this session.

“This is the easiest place to get bipartisan agreement,” Cruz said. “A comprehensive privacy bill will make it harder to bring Democrats and Republicans together.”

As Cruz said, when it comes to bills that are framed as protecting children online, there is reason to be optimistic that they will actually pass. We have precedent: The only federal consumer internet privacy law we have is the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Then there is Section 230, which gives online platforms immunity with respect to content posted by users. This pivotal protection was originally part of the Communications Decency Act, which was intended to prevent children from viewing porn online. Other parts of the law were later repealed, but section 230 remains (like online porn).

But all this apparent support still doesn’t mean the bill is a slam dunk to become law. Biden’s State of the Union comments are very close to what he said in his State of the Union address a year ago, and it doesn’t seem to help that EARN IT, KOSA, and Clean Slate pass.

So there’s no guarantee that the bill will fare better this session, but there are some new pressures to deal with: States are now enforcing their own child protection online laws instead of federal action. California’s Age-Friendly Design Code Act will take effect in 2024. The law forces online services accessible to people under the age of 18 to ask permission before collecting data, and prohibits using that data in certain ways. Basically, websites should be designed to give users under the age of 18 the most privacy. The California law was modeled on the English law of the same name. Several states are considering similar laws.

However, not everyone can protect children in this way. Internet privacy and free speech advocates have criticized KOSA and EARN IT, saying the legislation may do the opposite of what advocates claim. EARN IT, opponents say, could force services to drop encryption, expose users’ communications to law enforcement (or anyone with access) or create a platform to monitor users’ public and private speech. He also said it would not be an effective tool in combating child sexual abuse material, which is what it aims to do.

Critics of KOSA believe that the law will make censorship on the platform worse, and that it will be overbroad, because the platform does not want to risk allowing anything that could cause problems. In addition, they believe that KOSA gives parents power over what their children (in particular, teenagers) can see and do, and may force the platform to create an age verification system that will destroy everyone’s privacy, since all users must submit personal information to third parties to prove age only to use the service.

Another danger in child-targeted laws like this is that Congress will simply stop. History shows that if children are legally protected, lawmakers will extend those protections to adults. They may make additional laws for children. The Communications Decency Act and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act were passed more than 25 years ago. Technology has changed a lot since then. The law is not.

A bill that restricts some of the largest companies in the world is a hard sell for some politicians, as evidenced by the struggle to pass bipartisan and bicameral antitrust and privacy bills last year. Bill that says to protect children, on the other hand, hard to vote against. But the bill may do more harm than good. They also give lawmakers a way to look like they’re doing something about online harm for some people without having to do the harder work of figuring out how to provide that protection for everyone.