Mother who lost son to online challenge pushing for House to pass safety bill

After years of advocacy spearheaded by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act by a wide margin Tuesday — 91-3.

The bill would be the first major piece of legislation aiming to regulate children's use of social media.

When big tech CEOs testified before the Senate Commerce Committee in January, families held up photos of loved ones they said were victims of social media's harms.

Joann Bogard was one of those parents.

"This bill passing the Senate is going to honor Mason. It's going to honor all of my fellow parents who have advocated with me who have lost children," Bogard said.

Her youngest son Mason died after attempting the viral "blackout challenge" in 2019. Since then, she's made multiple trips to Capitol Hill to lobby for change.

The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act would ban advertising targeted at minors. Platforms would be required to enable the strongest privacy settings by default for minors. And the bill makes social media companies legally responsible for reducing harmful content, like promotion of suicide and substance abuse.

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Bogard said she believes the duty to care is one of the most important elements of the bill.

"The social media companies have to mitigate the harms. They have to be responsible," she said. "No other American industry goes unchecked, and they have gone unchecked for far too long."

The House of Representatives is out of town for the August recess. It's unclear when or if the House will consider the bill after they return in September. They have until the end of the year to pass it and send it to President Joe Biden's desk.