Peters Helps Advance the Kids Online Safety Act Out of Committee

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) helped pass the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act out of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Peters is a cosponsor of the bill, which would help protect children online by providing young people and parents with the tools, safeguards, and transparency they need to protect against online harms. The bill would also require social media platforms to put the well-being of children first, supporting an environment that is safer by default. It would also require independent audits by experts to verify that online platforms are taking meaningful steps to address risks to kids. “Today’s social media landscape has the potential to expose children to dangerous content that could leave them vulnerable to harmful situations. It’s past time for Congress to take action to better protect kids against these threats,” said Senator Peters. “This bipartisan legislation would help keep kids safe on social media and provide parents with tools to prevent their children from experiencing harm online. I’m proud to support this commonsense legislation and will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get it passed in the Senate.” The Kids Online Safety Act would: Require that social media platforms provide minors with options to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of algorithmic recommendations. Platforms would be required to enable the strongest settings by default; Give parents new controls to help identify harmful behaviors, and provide parents and children with a dedicated channel to report harms to the platform; Create a responsibility for social media platforms to prevent and mitigate harms to minors, such as promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and unlawful products for minors e.g. gambling and alcohol; Require social media platforms to perform an annual independent audit that assesses the risks to minors, their compliance with this legislation, and whether the platform is taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms; and Provide academic and public interest organizations with access to critical datasets from social media platforms to foster research regarding harms to the safety and well-being of minors. Peters, who also serves as Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, previously convened a hearing to examine how social media platforms continue to prioritize increased user engagement and revenue over safety and security. Peters also released an investigative report that found social media companies’ current incentive structures contribute to the spread of extremist content. He also previously led a hearing with independent social media experts to discuss how the spread of extremist content on social media platforms translates to real-world violence. ###