Senate to push forward with children online safety bills this week

WASHINGTON — The Senate plans to vote this week on a pair of children’s online safety bills, a rare moment of bipartisan cooperation a little more than three months before a heated presidential election.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday afternoon teed up a procedural vote on the social media bills, known as the Kid’s Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children’s and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), with an initial vote planned for Thursday. A final vote could come next week unless senators in both parties agree to do it sooner.

While the online safety package appears poised to pass the Senate, it would also need to pass the House. Republican leaders there have also expressed strong interest in passing online safety legislation for children this Congress, but it's unclear how soon that could happen. Lawmakers in both chambers are set to leave Washington for the August recess in the coming days.

Some tech companies like Microsoft and Snap, the company that owns Snapchat, have endorsed KOSA. But other social media companies have not taken a formal position.

Opponents, including the ACLU and other free speech and civil liberties groups, argue that the bill’s definition of harm is too broad and could lead to censorship of content that promotes politically polarizing issues, gender equality or abortion rights.

In recent months, Schumer had tried to move the bipartisan online safety bills to the Senate floor by unanimous consent, but those efforts were blocked by senators with objections.

Since then, Schumer has worked closely with Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and the bills’ sponsors — Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and