Senate Panel Piles On Potential Social Media Regulations

Big Tech could be fighting a losing battle with a bipartisan movement in Congress for new regulations on social media use by children, including getting kids off such platforms entirely. The Senate Commerce Committee approved two bills, the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (CTOPPA), sending them along to the full Senate for a vote. While the industry group Computer and Communications Industry Association said the bills “raise serious First Amendment concerns, would lead to broad restrictions of online speech, contain vague knowledge standards and would create confusing compliance problems for businesses’ efforts to protect young people online,” the vote to favorably report the bills to the full Senate was unanimous. Big Tech has plenty of lobbying muscle, though. The Kids Online Safety Act passed unanimously out of the committee in 2022, but failed to make it into law.