The package would charge the Federal Trade Commission with deciding what is considered to be harmful content. That provision concerns groups on the right and left who worry that a politicized FTC could censor antiabortion content or content related to gender and sexuality.

If the two bills become law, they would mark Congress’s first major new regulation of children’s internet use in decades. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill frequently slam social-media companies for endangering children, but haven’t passed legislation designed to police the industry, which runs a sophisticated Washington lobbying operation. …

The Kids Online Safety Act, known as KOSA, which was introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), assigns platforms a “duty of care” for minors, pushing them to take steps to address mental health disorders, addiction-like behaviors, bullying, sexual exploitation, deceptive marketing practices and the promotion of drugs and alcohol.

It sets up a number of guardrails for platforms to offer minors: Companies would be mandated to allow children to limit the ability of others to communicate with them; to hide their personal data; to avoid features that “increase, sustain, or extend use” of the platform; and to opt out of personalized recommendation systems.

When a user is known to be a minor, the Kids Online Safety Act would force platforms to implement the strictest privacy and safety options by default.

The legislation has faced criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union and other First Amendment groups, which argue that it is an online censorship bill. By being ordered to limit harmful design features, those companies might censor politicized content, the organizations say. …

“The government is still determining what content is and isn’t okay for kids to see,” said Jenna Leventoff, who leads the ACLU’s policy surrounding the Kids Online Safety Act. “And that’s always going to be ripe for abuse.” …

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) hasn’t committed to holding a vote on the legislation. …

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(Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal. Photo Credit: Mayer Tawfik on Unsplash)