US Senators Introduce ‘Kids Online Safety Act’ To Enforce Protection For Minors

Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal have just introduced a new bill encouraging heightened measures for children’s online safety. 

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was created to allow kids more control over their privacy on social media while implementing additional guidelines for the firms that run these platforms. In this bill, “kids” refers to minors under the age of 16. 

“What we’ve seen is gut-wrenchingly a sense of powerlessness, a loss of control from kids themselves,” Blumenthal stated at the news conference, which took place on Wednesday. 

Parents will also be provided with tools that will allow them to keep an eye on how much time their kids are spending on a particular platform, choosing to switch off features like YouTube’s autoplay that could keep their kids online longer than intended. 

“What we’re doing in this bill is empowering those children and their parents to take back control and the power over their lives online.”

Children will be given easily-accessible tools that will let them limit screen time and protect the data they may put out online. They’ll also be able to opt-out of algorithm-based recommendations, per Engadget. 

Meanwhile, social networks themselves are given the responsibility to “prevent and mitigate harms to minors,” which includes limiting harmful content. This could be anything from self-harming behaviors to sexual exploitation or unlawful products like gambling and alcohol. 

They will also be required to carry out an annual independent audit to assess the risk being on the platform may pose for a minor, and how well the platform is complying with the bill. 

[via Engadget and the Washington Post, image via Shutterstock]