Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Today’s Vote To Advance Kids’ Online Safety Legislation
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on today’s upcoming vote on cloture on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s and Teens Online Protection Act (COPPA). Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Social media has been part of our lives for two decades. It’s connected people in ways previous generations could have never fathomed.
But with the benefits of social media also come risks. Many kids experience relentless online bullying. Kids’ private personal data can be collected and used nefariously. Predators can exploit or target kids. And for kids who struggle with mental health, social media can magnify their anguish.
It’s been decades since the federal government has updated laws that protect our kids on the internet, but today, historically, the Senate has a chance to start changing that with bipartisan legislation.
This afternoon, the Senate will vote to advance two bipartisan bills: the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, and an update to the Children’s and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.
KOSA and COPPA represent something very urgent: a first step to keeping our kids safe on social media and other online platforms. I am hopeful we will act on these bills swiftly. They’ve already passed out of Commerce Committee for the last two years under the careful guidance of Chair Cantwell. And KOSA has 68 cosponsors, bipartisan, more than enough to pass this chamber.
Getting here wasn’t easy. I’ve worked for years with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to prepare these bills for the floor. I want to thank Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn and Markey and Cassidy. They have been a relentless and powerful force to get these bills moving. I made sure everyone had a chance to offer their input and we worked through any disagreements.
Finalizing these safety bills has been a long and winding and difficult road, but one thing I’ve known from the start, it sure would be worth it.
We must remember: we could never have reached this point without parents of children who tragically took their own lives because of what happened to them on social media, who came down here to relentlessly lobby and tell their stories. Over the past few months, I’ve sat down with these parents, I’ve listened to their stories. They’re some of the most painful but important meetings I’ve ever had. We’ve cried together, we looked at pictures of their kids, gone, and felt the deep frustration that we must do more as a society to keep kids safe online.
Looking at these pictures made me think of my own children – now in their thirties – and my grandkids. The thought of losing them is incomprehensible. The message from these parents has been simple and consistent: it’s been long enough. The Senate must pass kids online safety legislation with all due haste.
So today, as we begin voting on these bills, I want to thank the parents who turned their grief into grace. I want to thank them and thank them again.
Nobody would blame these parents if they preferred to process their pain in privacy, curse the darkness, but instead they’ve shared their stories, pushed the Senate into action, lit a candle to make sure other families won’t suffer as they have been suffering and always will.
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