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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, today, the Senate takes a groundbreaking step towards ensuring our kids' online safety in the age of social media. As we all know, social media has many benefits; but with the benefits also comes risk. Many kids experience relentless online bullying. Kids' private personal data can be collected and used nefariously. Predators can exploit or target kids.

And for kids who struggle with mental health, social media can magnify their anguish. I have met with the parents over and over again who have lost children in the flower of their lives because they were manipulated--nefariously, maliciously--by social media. We must stop that. And today, KOSA and COPPA represent something very urgent. These bills will provide the appropriate guardrails necessary to protect kids against online threats.

It is not an exaggeration to say these bills would be the most important updates in decades to Federal laws that protect kids on the internet, and it is a very good first step. And we did it with both sides working together, bipartisan, as this body ought to work--and I try to get it to work that way all the time. I want to thank my colleagues who championed these bills: Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn, Markey and Cassidy, Chair Cantwell, Chair Durbin, Senator Klobuchar, and so many others who really led the charge.

Once the Senate clears today's procedural vote, KOSA and COPPA will be on a glidepath to final passage early next week. We should not delay a moment more. We should get the job done. Getting to this point wasn't easy. It has been a long and winding and difficult road. But we all kept going because we knew the results would be worth it.

Most importantly, I want to thank the true heroes of this effort: the parents whose kids tragically took their own lives because of what happened to them on social media. Some of the parents are here today. We salute you. It has been an honor to get to know these wonderful Americans over the past few months. We have met together; we felt pain together; we have cried together. What they have endured is incomprehensible. But amazingly and beautifully, instead of curing in darkness, as the scriptures say, these parents lit a candle. They turned their grief into grace.

Today the Senate tells these parents: We hear you. We are taking action.

Cloture Motion

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