7/31/24 - Lawmakers Consider Child Safety Bill

The Senate passes legislation designed to further protect children from dangerous online content.

-The U.S. Senate voted 91-3 and overwhelmingly passed an online safety bill that would update child privacy laws.                                                 If made law, it would be the first major tech regulation package to pass in the last several years.

The measure has been pushed by parents who had children that died as a result of suicide because of online bullying or having been harmed by online content.

It would also be the first major effort by Congress in decades to hold tech companies more accountable for the harm they cause. 

Companies would have to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on online platforms and to exercise "duty of care" and ensure that they generally default to the safest settings possible.

The companies would be required to mitigate and even prevent harms to children, including bullying and violence, the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and advertisements for illegal products such as narcotics, tobacco or alcohol.

Congress passed legislation earlier this year that would force TikTok to see or face a ban, but that law only targets one company.