WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday passed bipartisan legislation to impose sweeping safety and privacy requirements for children and teens on social media and other technology platforms, voting overwhelmingly to send the measure to the House, where its fate was uncertain.
Passage of the measure, which has been the subject of a dogged advocacy campaign by parents who say their children lost their lives because of something they found or saw on social media, marked a rare bipartisan achievement at a time of deep polarization in Congress.
The package faces a fierce lobbying effort by technology companies that are resisting new regulation, and deep skepticism among free speech advocates who argue that it would chill individual expression and potentially harm some of those whom the bill aims to protect.
The vote was 91-3 to approve the measure, sending it to the House, which is in recess until September. The legislation is the product of years of work by lawmakers and parents to overhaul digital privacy and safety laws as social networking sites, digital gaming and other online platforms increasingly dominate children’s and teens’ lives.
The centerpiece of the legislation would create a “duty of care” for social networking platforms that mandates they protect minors against mental health disorders and from abuse, sexual exploitation and other harms. Companies could be held liable for failing to filter out content or limit features that could lead to those adverse impacts.
Led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the legislation also would require technology service providers to turn on the highest privacy and safety settings by default for users younger than 17 and to allow youths to opt out of some features that can lead to compulsive use, such as auto-playing of videos.
A second measure would strengthen privacy protections for anyone younger than 17 and ban targeted advertising to children and teens. It would create an “eraser button” for parents and children, requiring companies to permit users to delete personal information.
Blumenthal and Blackburn united around the goal of making the internet safer for children. They were particularly motivated by parents who told gut-wrenching stories of losing their children, some to suicide, and young people who described the mental distress that social media imposes on them.
The bill faces strong pushback from technology companies, who argue it would place unacceptable burdens on them to moderate content and verify users’ ages, and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union that contend it would restrict free speech.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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