The US Senate approves a bill to protect children on the Internet

The United States Senate approved this Tuesday a series of measures aimed at protecting children on the Internet, the first major legislation regarding the country’s technology sector in years.

“It’s an extraordinary day,” said the leader of the Democratic Party that governs the Senate, Chuck Schumer. “The Senate has fulfilled its promise to every parent who has lost a child to the dangers of social networks,” he said.

This bill, known as the “Children’s Online Safety Act” (KOSA), must now be passed in the House of Representatives, where its confirmation is more certain and where legislators are on parliamentary recess until September.

The text, supported in the Senate by Republican and Democratic legislators, requires technology platforms to establish provisions to protect young children from problematic and dangerous content, especially sexual exploitation, online harassment and suicidal ideation and eating disorders.

It would also place limits on the ability of users to communicate with children through messages and place more parental control over social networks.

President Joe Biden responded with excitement and thanked the senators, also now asking the House to “hold big technology companies accountable for the testing they’re doing on our children for profit.” ”

“There is no doubt that digital platforms are contributing to the mental health crisis among young Americans,” Mr. Biden said in a press release. “Our children are at the mercy of a vicious online world (…) It’s time to act,” he said.

The giants Microsoft, X (formerly Twitter) and Snap announced themselves for the rules approved by the Senate, while Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and TikTok have not shown clear support.

In addition, the initiative strengthens privacy rules for minors and would ban online advertising aimed at children and minors, raising the limit to 17 years of age (was he was 13 years old before).

In mid-June, the head of the federal medical field of the United States asked social networks to display information on their portals about the dangers faced by young people who spend their time there, such as mandatory ban messages on packages a cigarette

However, the project in Congress is against associations that protect the rights of minorities (especially the LGBT community) and freedom of expression, who fear that these laws will strengthen the isolation of some adolescents.

The KOSA law “violates” freedom of expression, according to the powerful human rights association ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), which believed it amounted to a “blank check for censorship.”

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