[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 24, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S5326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               KOSA-COPPA

  Mr. President, on a different issue, KOSA and COPPA, tomorrow, the 
Senate will get the chance to take a major step forward on ensuring our 
kids' safety. We will hold a cloture vote on a measure that contains 
two resoundingly bipartisan bills: the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, 
and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.
  Both of these bills have been around since last Congress. Both have 
gone through the Senate Commerce Committee without opposition. But 
there have been many roadblocks to both KOSA and COPPA, and the parents 
who have been pushing and pushing and pushing for kids' online safety 
are fed up with the delay.
  But I believe this time will be different. This time I am very 
hopeful that we can pass these bills through the Chamber.
  I have worked closely with Members on both sides to get these bills 
ready for the floor. I made sure Members had plenty of time to offer 
their input, work through disagreements, and arrive at a consensus. 
Now, the moment to act has arrived. We are going to get our chance to 
take the next big step tomorrow.
  I have had many difficult meetings with constituents as a Member of 
this body, but few, few have been as heart-wrenching as the meetings I 
have had with the parents of kids who took their own lives because of 
what happened to them on social media.
  I met with one parent from New York yesterday whose child suffered 
this terrible fate. She has lost her child forever.
  And I have met many others back home and across the country who are 
in a similar situation. Some of the parents told me about how their 
kids were relentlessly bullied online. Others told me about how their 
kids were targeted by predators or duped into buying deadly drugs. 
Virtually all the parents shared their stories about the intense mental 
anguish their kids suffered.
  When I talked to the parents who lost their children, when I saw the 
pictures of their kids that they were holding up yesterday--I have seen 
those pictures before. I think of my kids when they were little. I 
think of my grandkids today. What if one of them goes online and loses 
their life? God forbid. God forbid.
  The loss shatters your heart, and I think to myself that if we could 
get these bills done, it would do so much good for millions of families 
across the country. Tomorrow is the day we must act.
  So I want to thank so many of the Senators who labored tirelessly on 
these bills. I especially want to thank Senators Blumenthal and 
Blackburn for their work on KOSA, as well as Senators Markey and 
Cassidy for their work on COPPA. I also wish to thank Chair Cantwell 
for her excellent leadership on the Commerce Committee. I look forward 
to voting on advancing KOSA/COPPA here on the floor later this week.