WASHINGTON—The GOP-controlled U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee today declined to advance a controversial age verification proposal brought by conservative Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, instead endorsing the latest iteration of Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn's Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).
The legislative action took place during an executive markup session led by the committee chair, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and its ranking member, Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington. After addressing U.S. Coast Guard promotions, as this falls under the purview of the committee, Sen. Cantwell indicated that she and her fellow Democrats were unable to support Sen. Lee's Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act.
The SCREEN Act, if it advanced all the way to the desk of President Donald Trump, would have adopted national age verification requirements that would be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission enforcement powers under unfair and deceptive business practices. Civil penalties would range up to $10,000 per violation. Despite the proposed regulatory framework, the Democrats voted along party lines against the Republican majority, which favored advancing Lee's bill to the entire Senate for consideration.
However, Senate procedures dictate that a bill cannot advance to the Senate if votes were issued by proxy and on behalf of members who weren't physically at the executive session. In order to advance legislation, the number of senators who voted for passage must outnumber the total number of senators who voted against the bill. This stalls the SCREEN Act.
A technicality such as this throws a wrench in Lee's plan to advance the SCREEN Act in the Senate to be considered alongside a version of the bill already adopted in the GOP-held House of Representatives. As AVN reported, the House in June advanced the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, which includes an even more drastic version of the SCREEN Act, to the Senate in a bipartisan vote. Given the Senate's show of favor today for KOSA, coupled with the lame-duck status of the sitting body, it is unlikely it will take the KIDS bill up.
The SCREEN Act's failure to advance is welcomed news for many adult entertainment industry advocates. Alison Boden, the executive director of the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), told AVN that this was a positive development. "FSC is very happy that the SCREEN Act did not have the votes to pass out of committee this morning," Boden said.
"We’re grateful to the thousands of industry members who came out in opposition to this bill," she added. "Their voices made a difference. Obviously, the fight isn't over, but this was an important victory." The "fight" Boden refers to also entails efforts to include adult entertainment industry input in the adoption of more popular proposals like KOSA.
Corey Silverstein of Silverstein Legal told AVN that he is additionally relieved by the stalling of the SCREEN Act in the Senate Commerce Committee.
Silverstein said, "Today’s failure to advance the SCREEN Act is a victory for privacy, free expression and common sense.
"Protecting minors online is a goal we all share, but forcing adults to submit to sweeping identity checks before accessing lawful speech creates serious privacy and data-security risks," he added. "Congress should pursue effective, device-based solutions that protect children without surveilling adults or undermining the First Amendment."
Congressional newswire service Punchbowl News reports that the vote to advance KOSA, alongside three other age-appropriate design bills for social media and artificial intelligence, is a "show of force" for a measure that Sens. Blumenthal and Blackburn have tried for years to adopt.
As AVN has reported, the language of KOSA has undergone significant changes due in part to Blackburn's reputation for being extremely anti-LGBTQ+ and for going on record as wanting to use the law to censor material about transgender rights online. Though it's not explicitly stated in the bill, KOSA could lead to national age-gating being adopted by Congress.
"The Senate version of KOSA imposes a 'duty of care' on online services, including social media, to avoid exposing young people to certain material the law deems harmful," notes Joe Mullin, senior policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "But those obligations only work if online services know which users are minors."
"That means more platforms will be pressured to implement age verification or age estimation systems," Mullin continues. "Minors deserve meaningful privacy protections online—as do adults. But KOSA moves in the opposite direction by encouraging more age verification, as well as more legal pressure for platforms to monitor and restrict lawful speech."
EFF and numerous civil liberties groups from across the political spectrum have expressed opposition to bills like KOSA and the SCREEN Act.
