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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate will consider legislation this week that aims to protect children from dangerous online content, moving forward with what
Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, left, talks with Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, as they wait for the arrival of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, July 10, 2024 in Washington.
WASHINGTON — The Senate will consider legislation this week that aims to protect children from dangerous online content, moving forward with what could become the first sweeping new regulation of the tech industry in decades. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is set to announce Tuesday that he will bring the bipartisan bill up in the Senate, with hopes of passing it before the chamber leaves for its August recess. The legislation had stalled for months even as more than two-thirds of the Senate signed on to support it and families of children who have suffered online bullying and harm advocated for its passage. Schumer says the bill “can change and save lives,” echoing the concerns of parent advocates who say social media and other tech companies need to do more to try to help prevent suicides and other trauma endured by children and teenagers who inevitably spend a lot of their time online. The online safety bill, which the Senate will consider along with a separate bill to update child online privacy laws, would be the first major tech regulation package to move in years. While there has long been bipartisan support for the idea that the biggest technology companies should face more government scrutiny, there has been little consensus on how it should be done. Congress passed legislation earlier this year that would force Chinese-owned social media company TikTok to sell or face a ban, but that law only targets one company. The bill’s prospects in the House are so far unclear. But if it passes the Senate with an overwhelming bipartisan vote — as it is expected to — advocates hope it will put pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to bring it up before the November election or the end of the session in January. The child safety bill came together as Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, have worked together and with advocacy groups for several years on compromise legislation that is designed to hold companies more responsible for what children see while also ensuring that Congress does not go too far in regulating what individuals post. The legislation would create what is called a “duty of care” — a legal term that requires companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on online platforms minors will likely use. The companies would be required to mitigate and even prevent harms to children, including bullying and violence, the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and advertisements for illegal products such as narcotics, tobacco or alcohol. To achieve that goal, social media platforms would have to provide minors with options to protect their information, disable addictive product features and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations. They would also be required to limit other users from communicating with children and limit features that “increase, sustain, or extend the use” of the platform — such as autoplay for videos or platform rewards. In general, online platforms would have to default to the safest settings possible for accounts they believe belong to minors. The idea, Blumenthal and Blackburn have said, is for the platforms to be “safe by design.” The senators have worked closely with parents of children who have died by suicide after cyberbullying or otherwise been harmed by social media, including dangerous social media challenges, extortion attempts, eating disorders and drug deals. Schumer said he had met with some of those families in recent months as well and is “proud to work side-by-side with them and put on the floor legislation that I believe will pass.” “I’ve met with families from across the country who have gone through the worst thing a parent could endure — losing a child,” Schumer said. “Rather than retreating into the darkness of their loss, these families lit a candle for others with their advocacy.” Some tech companies, like Microsoft, X and Snap, are supporting the bill. Opponents, however, fear it would violate the First Amendment and harm vulnerable kids who wouldn’t be able to access information on LGBTQ issues or reproductive rights — although the bill has been revised to address many of those concerns, and major LGBTQ groups have decided to support the proposed legislation. Along with the online safety bill, the Senate will also consider bipartisan online privacy legislation by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Bill Cassidy, R-La.. That bill would update current law that prohibits online companies from collecting personal information from users under 13 by raising the age to 17. The bill would also ban targeted advertising to users under 17 and allow teens or guardians to delete a minor’s personal information.Attorneys for state of Utah ask parole board to keep death sentence for man convicted in 1998 murder Attorneys for the state of Utah are expected on Tuesday to urge a parole board to deny a death row inmate’s request for his life to be spared ahead of his scheduled Aug. 8 execution. Representatives of the 49-year-old victim, Claudia Benn, were scheduled to testify before both sides deliver their closing arguments during the WASHINGTON — Comedian Jon Stewart is pressing the Biden administration to fix a loophole in a massive veterans aid bill that left out some of the first U.S. troops who responded after the Sept. 11 attacks and got sick after deploying to a base contaminated with dangerous levels of uranium. Special operations forces deployed WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week is looming as a fraught one between the two allies, coming at a moment of extreme political flux in the United States, and wariness among American leaders about Netanyahu’s history of interjecting himself into U.S. domestic politics. The main purpose of Netanyahu’s REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden says he’s “determined to get as much done” as he possibly can in his final six months in the White House as he tries to beat back a defining force that his lame-duck predecessors struggled to vanquish: diminished relevance. Biden hopes to keep the spigot flowing with UNITED NATIONS — Nearly 40 million people were living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS last year, over 9 million weren’t getting any treatment, and the result was that every minute someone died of AIDS-related causes, the U.N. said in a new report launched Monday. While advances are being made to end the WASHINGTON — As the formulaic “pass the torch” drumbeat thumped on from lawmakers wanting him to quit the race, President Joe Biden maintained a brave face. Publicly, he vowed he was all in, until the day he got out. But there were telling indications he was listening to that beat long before he ended Seattle scholarship celebrates LGBTQ+ community Founded in 1991, the GSBA Scholarship & Education Fund, with the help of Carter Subaru, has invested almost $6 million in 552 scholars.In recent years, one of the most interesting families for whale watching is the West Coast Bigg's orcas' T65A pod.Celebrities get ready to swing for a cause at Seattle All-Star Classic As the summer sun warms the Puget Sound area, the Seattle All-Star Classic celebrity softball game is gearing up for its third inning.The Seattle Storm, a powerhouse in the WNBA, is celebrating its 25th anniversary and is continuing to help kids in need through Treehouse.
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