The Senate is expected to advance legislation related to child and teen safety and privacy: the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teen Online Privacy and Protection Act (known as COPPA 2.0).
While the original COPPA applied to children only (those under 13), the updated version—as well as KOSA—apply to anyone under 17. COPPA 2.0 does distinguish children from teens in some cases; for example, apps, games, websites, or other platforms will still need verifiable parental consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information related to children under 13, but teens can provide verified consent themselves.
KOSA covers online platforms that are used (or likely to be used) by children or teens. It requires product safeguards (and requires default safeguards for minors), and imposes a duty of care: platforms must take measures to mitigate harm to minors (these harms include mental health issues like depression and anxiety; predatory or deceptive marketing practices; and bullying or harassment, among others).
The bills come in response to growing concern from policymakers about the impact of social media and other online platforms on the mental health of young people. The ACLU and LGBTQ+ groups, on the other hand, worry that the two bills may stifle free speech or censor the internet for children and teens, limiting access to information and resources about issues like sexual orientation.
Go deeper: For easy reference on what is changing in COPPA, The Future of Privacy Forum has created a redlined version of COPPA with the COPPA 2.0 modifications, available here.
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