Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Ahead of Today’s Senate Vote To Pass On Bipartisan Legislation To Provide Necessary Guardrails For Kids’ Online Safety
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on today’s vote to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s and Teens Online Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
I’m proud to say today, the Senate keeps its promise to every parent who’s lost a child because of the risks of social media. Today, after a lot of hard work and a lot of twists and turns, we will pass KOSA and COPPA.
KOSA and COPPA will be perhaps the most important updates to federal laws protecting kids on the internet in decades, and it’s a very good first step.
This was truly a bipartisan effort from the start here in the Senate. I’m proud of the way both sides of the aisle came together on an issue affecting so many kids and so many families across America.
The House should take note and follow the Senate’s example by passing KOSA and COPPA when they return. After the Senate passes KOSA and COPPA today with a strong bipartisan vote, the House should do the same when they return in September.
These bills have real, bipartisan momentum, so we should seize the opportunity to send them to the president’s desk.
As we all know, social media has many benefits. But we also know about the many risks social media can pose, especially to our kids.
Too many kids experience relentless promotion of suicide or substance abuse material. Too many kids have their personal data collected and then used nefariously.
With studies showing that kids today spend more time on social media than ever before, now is the moment to pass KOSA, pass COPPA, and instill guardrails that protect kids from these risks.
We’ve heard from so many parents whose kids, sadly, took their own lives – their own lives – because of what happened to them on social media. To their everlasting credit, these parents, instead of cursing the darkness, lit a candle.
They turned their grief into grace, an amazing thing, and worked doggedly to help get this bill over the finish line, so that what happened to their kids – their kids will never come back – what happened to their kids doesn’t happen to any others.
I thank these brave parents and families for sharing their heart-wrenching stories. And I thank my colleagues, Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn, Markey and Cassidy, Durbin and Klobuchar, Chair Cantwell, and so many others for championing these bills.
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