Kosa-Coppa

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, this week the Senate is taking a historic step in the fight to protect children online by bringing the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act to the floor.

Last Congress, Senator Blumenthal and I introduced KOSA following disturbing reports that Meta leadership knew its platform Instagram is toxic to teenage girls, causing rising rates of eating disorders and mental health issues, but Meta downplayed these harms in public.

During a series of five subcommittee hearings, we heard testimony from social media companies, advocates, and parents on the repeated failures of tech giants to protect kids, to protect them from pro- suicide content, from drug dealers, from sexual predators, from eating disorder content, from human traffickers, and so much more.

For years, the Big Tech giants refused to meaningfully address these problems, but that changes with KOSA, which will finally hold them accountable.

Congress has not passed a major law to protect children online since 1998, and a lot has changed in the last 25 years. But this moment would have been impossible without the hundreds of parents, including many who have tragically lost their children to social media harms. They have traveled to Washington over the past several years to share their heartbreaking stories and to demand action to protect our children. Senator Blumenthal and I could not have accomplished this without their voices, and I want to thank all of our friends and our allies for their work in getting this bill to the floor. One thing is certain: Moms on a Mission have always proven to be an unstoppable force, and, indeed, they are.

I also want to thank Leader Schumer, Commerce Committee Chair Cantwell, Ranking Member Cruz, and our 68 Senate cosponsors for helping us get here.

Once the Senate formally passes KOSA, our work is not done. We must ensure that the House quickly passes this bill and sends it to the President's desk.

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