ICYMI: Bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, Introduced by Hassan, Blumenthal, Blackburn, and Colleagues, Passes Senate

WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, last week the U.S. Senate voted 91-3 to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, bipartisan legislation that U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) helped introduce with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and other colleagues to provide kids and parents with the tools, safeguards, and transparency to better protect against threats to children’s health and wellbeing online.

“Whenever I meet with young people in New Hampshire, they tell me about the negative impacts of social media on their and their peers’ mental health,” said Senator Hassan. “This bipartisan legislation will take significant steps towards giving parents and children the tools that they need to help combat a major risk to youth mental health. I am glad to see the bill pass the Senate with such a wide, bipartisan margin, and I urge my colleagues in the House to pass it and send it to President Biden’s desk immediately.”

The Kids Online Safety Act would take important steps to help keep children and teenagers safe online, including by:

• Requiring social media platforms to provide minors options to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt-out of personalized algorithmic recommendations – and platforms are required to enable to strongest settings by default
• Giving parents and schools a dedicated channel to report harms to kids on platforms
• Establishing a duty for online platforms to prevent and mitigate dangers to children in their product designs, for instance, preventing advertisements for illegal products

Senator Hassan is working to strengthen mental health care treatment for young Granite Staters. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Senator Hassan supported and helped pass into law, includes important funding for New Hampshire schools to support youth mental health, including a $760,000 annual grant used by the University of New Hampshire to partner with the Manchester School District to place mental health professionals in schools. Last year, New Hampshire was one of 15 states to receive a $1 million planning grant under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to pursue better access to community mental health and addiction care. As a result, this year New Hampshire was one of 10 states selected to join the Medicaid-funded Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) demonstration program, which provides states with consistent funding to expand access to community-based, integrated behavioral health services. In 2022, President Biden signed into law a bipartisan bill from Senator Hassan and Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) to strengthen mental health resources for young people and help prevent youth suicide. In addition, Senator Hassan helped establish and secure funding for the 9-8-8 suicide prevention hotline.

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