Weekly Column: Working To Keep Idaho Kids And Teens Safe Online

We must do more on the Internet to protect the well-being of our youth.  Unchecked access to harmful and obscene information on social media has had long-lasting, catastrophic effects on children and teens.  In some cases, the damage has been permanent.  Requiring Big Tech to establish safe-by-default practices will provide parents with the tools and resources to better safeguard minors online and will go a long way in putting the well-being of children and teens first.  The Senate’s passage of S. 2073, the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act, is an important step toward protecting Idaho kids and teens on social media. 

The Senate overwhelmingly passed S. 2073, with my support, by a vote of 91-3.  S. 2073 is a legislative package that combines two pieces of legislation, both of which I co-sponsored:

• The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would establish a duty of care to require social media and Internet companies to prevent minors from being able to access harmful or obscene materials, with exceptions for counseling help and suicide prevention.  The legislation would also mandate social media companies provide minors and their parents certain safeguards to limit certain behaviors online, including stalking, addiction and accessing dangerous material.  Further, KOSA would require social media and Internet companies to make their terms of use and policies, practices and safeguards easier to understand, especially for minors and their parents.

• The Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) would:

• prohibit Internet companies from collecting personal information from users who are 13 to 16 years old without their consent;

• ban targeted advertising to children and teens under the age of 17;

• revise existing law’s “actual knowledge” standard to better protect children;

• require companies to permit users to eliminate personal information from a child or teen when technologically feasible; and

• establish a “Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for Teens” that limits the collection of personal information of teens.

As technology—for better and worse—edges into more and more aspects of daily life, we must have the means to protect our children from the negative impacts of increased ever-present online life.  I am encouraged that this legislation would arm parents with better tools and information to combat online threats and essentially require tech companies to help shelter children and teens from online dangers.  These shields are necessary, commonsense and widely supported.  Frankly, they should already be standard practice.  I look forward to enactment of this important legislation.  

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