WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate passed two major online child safety reforms July 30, but the bills face an uncertain future in the House. The bills — the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act and the Kids Online Safety Act, sometimes called COPPA 2.0 and KOSA — were approved by the upper chamber in a bipartisan 91-3 vote. But the legislation faces some criticism from tech industry groups and the American Civil Liberties Union, and it is not yet clear if it would have the necessary support to pass in the GOP-controlled House. KOSA would create the new obligation of “duty of care,” a requirement for social media companies to mitigate potential harms to children. COPPA 2.0 would expand the parental consent requirement for data collection and would ban companies from targeting children with advertising. Jessica Heldman, a child rights professor at the University of San Diego, a Catholic university, and a member of its Children’s Advocacy Institute, told OSV News, “the research is clear that social media puts children at risk.” (OSV News)
