US Senate passes online child safety bills
The Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act passed in the US Senate yesterday, potentially bringing significant changes to online platforms if the bills get approved by the House of Representatives.
Both bills would apply to games platforms, aim at protecting children online, and were approved in a bipartisan 91-3 vote.
KOSA would introduce a "duty of care" for tech companies when it comes to kids using their platforms, requiring them to have stronger regulations to avoid cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, and more. The bill would also see users have to prove they meet a platform's age requirements to avoid minors using products they shouldn't.
Meanwhile, COPPA 2.0 (nicknamed as such as it builds upon the 1998's COPPA) would ban advertising targeting minors as well as their data being collected without their consent. It also aims at giving more control to parents and their children, who could ask for their information to be deleted from social platforms.
The two bills are considered the first significant pieces of legislation looking to protect children online in two decades.
KOSA and COPPA 2.0 will now look to go through the House of Representatives but it's entered its August recess a week early, which means it won't be in session until September 9.
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