Senate passes Kids Online Safety Act, aims to protect children from social media harms

The Kids Online Safety Act – a bill aiming to protect children from the harmful effects of social media, gaming and other online platforms – passed the Senate in a bipartisan 91-3 vote on Tuesday.

The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (also known as COPPA 2.0) was also passed. 

Following the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, "Too many kids see suicide or substance abuse material promoted online. We've heard from families who have lost their kids. It's heartbreaking. We must act to protect kids online. Today, the Senate has passed KOSA and COPPA 2.0 to help make sure this doesn't happen again."

The passage marks a major win for lawmakers and parents who have pushed for tech companies to do more to protect children from online harms.

What is the KOSA bill?

The Kids Online Safety Act, also known as KOSA, is a bill that sets out requirements to protect minors from online harms.

With its passage, KOSA creates a "duty of care" — a legal term that requires companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm — for online platforms minors will likely use.

FILE: Child using social media. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The requirements apply to covered platforms, which are applications or social networks that connect to the internet and are likely to be used by minors. However, the bill exempts internet service providers, email services and educational institutions from the requirements.

Covered platforms must take reasonable measures in the design and operation of products or services used by minors to prevent and mitigate certain harms, such as sexual exploitation, online bullying, the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse and advertisments for illegal products such as narcotics, tobacco or alcohol. 

Additionally, covered platforms must provide minors with certain safeguards, such as settings that restrict access to a minors' personal data. This would limit other users from communicating with children and limit features that "increase, sustain, or extend the use" of the platform — such as autoplay for videos or platform rewards. In general, online platforms would have to default to the safest settings possible for accounts it believes belong to minors.

Also, the platforms must provide parents or guardians with tools to help supervise a minors' use of a platform, such as control of privacy and account settings.

"So many of the harms that young people experience online and on social media are the result of deliberate design choices that these companies make," said Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, a nonprofit working to insulate children from commercialization, marketing and harms from Big Tech.

Who supports KOSA?

KOSA is supported by a broad range of nonprofits, tech accountability and parent groups and pediatricians such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Federation of Teachers, Common Sense Media, Fairplay, The Real Facebook Oversight Board and the NAACP. 

Some prominent tech companies, including Microsoft, X and Snap, also signed on. Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has not come out in firm support or opposition of the bill, although it has said in the past that it supports the regulation of social media.

ParentsSOS, a group of some 20 parents who have lost children to harm caused by social media, has also been campaigning for the bill's passage.

EARLIER: Kids Online Safety Act: What to know about the bill and its chances of passing

Josh Golin, the executive director of Fairplay, a nonprofit working to insulate children from commercialization, marketing and harms from Big Tech, said he was "very hopeful" that the bill will come to a vote this month.

"The reason it has it has not come to a vote yet is that passing legislation is really hard, particularly when you’re trying to regulate one of the, if not the most powerful industry in the world," he said. "We are outspent."

Earlier this month, Schumer said that passing the bill was a "top priority" but that it had not yet moved because of the objections.

"Sadly, a few of our colleagues continue to block these bills without offering any constructive ideas for how to revise the text," he said. "So now we must look ahead, and all options are on the table."

Who opposed KOSA?

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) were the three senators to vote against the bill.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., previously expressed opposition to the bill. Paul said the bill "could prevent kids from watching PGA golf or the Super Bowl on social media because of gambling and beer ads, those kids could just turn on the TV and see those exact same ads."

This story was reported from Los Angeles. The Associated Press contributed.