Morelle backs children’s online safety and privacy legislation

ROCHESTER – Today, Congressman Joe Morelle announced support for legislation to better protect kids’ privacy and safety online.

Rep. Morelle was joined by educators in support of the Kids Online Safety (KOSA) Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection (COPPA 2.0) Act, bipartisan legislation that will address the student mental health crisis by cracking down on Big Tech’s ability to promote dangerous and predatory content to children.

“We are at a critical inflection point in our relationship with the internet and its impact on our everyday lives. The evidence is clear on the direct harm social media and Big Tech is having on our children—we have a moral obligation to take action before it gets even worse,” said Congressman Joe Morelle. “As kids go back to school, this issue is top of mind for parents and grandparents everywhere. I’m proud to support bipartisan legislation to address this crisis head on and protect children from data collection, harmful content, cyberbullying, stalking, and other exploitative actions and practices online. The internet should be a positive resource and safe place for everyone, which is why I’m working tirelessly to pass these bills into law.”

There has been a recent rise in suicide attempts and negative mental health reports among students in the United States. The National Institute of Mental Health officially considers suicide to be a “major public health concern” and reports suicide as a top three leading cause of death among Americans aged 10-34.

In Rochester, according to the 2023-2024 Monroe County Youth Risk Behavior Survey, nearly one out of every four students reported feeling “so sad or hopeless… that they stopped doing their usual activities” and 11% of students reported seriously contemplating suicide.

There is research to link this decline in mental health to a rise in social media prevalence and usage. According to the U.S. Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), up to 95% of 13-17 year old Americans report using at least one social media platform, with nearly one-third of that group reporting “almost [constant]” usage. HHS also reports children and adolescents who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media face double the risk of mental health problems including experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety and 46% of adolescents aged 13-17 said social media makes them feel worse.

The legislation Rep. Morelle co-sponsors seek to limit the influence of social media on young people, all while giving parents more transparency and control over what their children see online.

Specifically, the Kids Online Safety Act would:

• Outline a set of harms to minors—including the promotion of suicide, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and certain unlawful products for minors like narcotic drugs, tobacco products, gambling, and alcohol—and require tech companies to take reasonable measures to prevent and mitigate them;
• Require social media companies to enable the strongest possible privacy settings for kids by default and provide minors with options to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations;
• Give parents new controls to help protect their children and spot harmful behaviors, and provides parents and educators with a dedicated channel to report harmful behavior and require platforms to substantively respond in a timely manner;
• Empower parents and inform policymakers about individual social media platforms’ efforts to reduce risks to kids;
• Direct covered platforms to implement controls to protect against stalking and exploitation of children;

Additionally, COPPA 2.0 would:

• Build on the original COPPA, which created protections for children under 13 years old, by prohibiting internet companies from collecting personal information from users who are 13 to 16 years old without their consent;
• Ban targeted advertising to children and teens;
• Create an “Eraser Button” by requiring companies to permit users to eliminate personal information from a child or teen when technologically feasible; and
• Establish data minimization rules to prohibit the excessive collection of children and teens’ data.

 To learn more about the Kids Online Safety Act, read the full text of the bill (click here), and to learn more about the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, read the full text of the bill (click here).