It’s taken 2 years to get the Kids Online Safety Act to this point

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The Senate is expected to vote on a piece of legislation today that aims to protect kids on social media. It's a rare bill with bipartisan support. NPR tech correspondent Dara Kerr reports.

DARA KERR, BYLINE: It's taken two years to get to this point. The Kids Online Safety Act is on the precipice of passing the Senate. It came together with an unlikely duo.

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MARSHA BLACKBURN: (Crying) Big tech is making their last-gasp push.

KERR: That's a very emotional Marsha Blackburn, a Republican senator from Tennessee, at a press conference touting the impending legislation. At her side, Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic Senator from Connecticut.

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RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: We no longer trust your promises that you will take care of it. We've seen this movie before. We know how it ends.

KERR: The message was clear. Senators say it's time to regulate social media companies. It's time to protect kids from toxic content that promotes self-harm, eating disorders and drug abuse. Protecting kids online seems like a no-brainer.

EVAN GREER: We all want to protect our kids. We all want to ensure that they're not encountering harmful content online.

KERR: But for some advocates, like Evan Greer, who's the director of Fight for the Future, the bill has unintended consequences, especially for LGBTQ kids. Greer's been working with hundreds of parents of trans kids who oppose the legislation. The big problem, she says, is that senators have too broadly defined harmful content.

GREER: Disproportionately, it would hurt kids that are the most vulnerable, who are most in need of access to that online community and information - particularly LGBTQ youth.

KERR: Several other LGBTQ advocacy groups that initially opposed the measure dropped their opposition earlier this year. Another unintended consequence of this bill - protecting kids' privacy. It's likely social media companies would have to gather data on kids.

INDIA MCKINNEY: You still have to figure out how to determine who is a child.

KERR: India McKinney works at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

MCKINNEY: And there is no way to do that that protects privacy, that protects anonymity, that protects all of these other First Amendment values that we find so important.

KERR: At the end of the day, LGBTQ and privacy groups say this bill doesn't rein in big tech enough, and yet the legislation has overwhelming support in the Senate. It's expected to pass later today. Then it moves to the House, where advocates can try and lobby lawmakers again.

Dara Kerr, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.