The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday introduced legislation to regulate big tech companies’ interactions with children and give parents tools to make decisions about their children’s digital use.
A bipartisan proposal from Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marcia Blackburn would give parents options to protect children from Big Tech attacks ranging from black-box algorithms to the Children’s Online Safety Act, the committee unanimously passed the Children’s Online Safety Act.
The Connecticut Democrat and Tennessee Republican have led hearings probing the inner workings of major tech platforms that have included testimony from executives at Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. The bill represents the senators’ solution to the problems faced by cyberbullies, social media addicts or people who are self-harming because of their online experiences.
“This move will give kids and parents more control over their online lives,” Mr. Blumenthal said at Wednesday’s meeting. It provides them with tools, controls, options, and protections to disable addictive behaviors, unlock algorithms, and protect their data.
The Children’s Online Safety Act requires social media platforms to allow people to opt out of algorithmic recommendations, creates a duty for social media platforms to protect and prevent harm to minors, and creates new access to companies’ algorithms for academic and nonprofit use. Researchers, Mr. Blumenthal said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, emphasized that the Commerce Committee’s legislation is not a one-size-fits-all solution and pointed to its efforts to lead an antitrust crackdown on big tech. Ms. Klobuchar said she supported the Child Safety Act, but said other policies needed to be implemented.
“This is only one part,” said Mrs. Klobuchar at the meeting. “This won’t fix the issues we have in the algorithm, and it won’t fix the competition issues.”
Ms Blackburn, who sponsored the children’s safety bill, said the need for changes to the laws governing technology had become clear to parents who had previously been unaware of how technology could affect their children during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Many of them did not realize what was happening until the epidemic happened and they began to see that the enemy was not always outside the home, but often within the four walls of their home, and that it was coming at their children. An instrument,” said Mrs. Blackburn.
Although the bill passed the Commerce Committee unanimously, future changes are possible. The committee’s top Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, said more work needs to be done to narrow the scope of the bill, define key words and create inconsistent and conflicting laws across states.
Mr. Wicker said he would wait to resolve the issues before the bill gets a vote on the Senate floor.
The Commerce Committee advanced the Children and Youth Online Privacy Protection Act, authored by Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, and Sen. Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. Mr Cassidy praised the committee’s bill as improving the security of children’s data.
The bill aims to change laws that prevent internet companies from collecting data from 13- to 15-year-olds without their consent, and would create an online “eraser button” that would allow users to erase data taken from a child, Mr. Cassidy said.
