A wolf in sheep’s clothing has snuck into Congress. And it’s ravenous. It seeks to devour all existing child protection laws by disguising itself as one.
This dangerous wolf is called The Parents Over Platform Act (POPA, S. 4349/HR. 6333).
While POPA purports to be a bill that would advance child online safety, it is the exact opposite. A careful reading of the text shows that this bill was not written for families. It was written for Big Tech.
POPA does nothing but cement the status quo of Big Tech’s impunity. It even threatens to erase what progress has already been made on child online safety.
That’s why over 100 child advocacy organizations and over 40 states have signed a joint letter, urging Congress to reject POPA. This letter was coordinated by NCOSE and our valued ally, Melissa McKay.
Join your voice to theirs! Take action now, urging Congress to reject the Parents Over Platforms Act.
POPA Incentivizes Tech Platforms to Remove Existing Protections for Children
Far from advancing child safety, POPA actually incentivizes tech companies to remove what few protections they may already have. This is because POPA states that its requirements do not apply to any platforms that treat children and adults the same. As such, tech companies can easily avoid extra legal obligations by deleting any tools that curate safe experiences for children.
In other words: tech companies who do nothing to protect children will not be touched by the bill. As such, POPA codifies that the most negligent platforms are the ones who escape accountability.
POPA Could Erase State Legislation on Child Online Safety
Continuing with this counterproductive theme, POPA threatens to erase existing state laws on child safety and prevent future laws from coming into effect. This would be done through an overly broad “pre-emption” clause.
Pre-emption essentially means that a certain issue will only be legislated at the federal level; states cannot have legislation on that topic. While this is a helpful legal framework in some cases, there has been a concerted effort from the tech industry to sneak vague, overly broad pre-emption clauses into bills. These devious clauses, such as the one in POPA, could be used wipe out virtually any state law on child online safety, and prevent future legislation from being passed.
Consider that Congress has not passed a federal law on child online safety in thirty years. All the new laws have been at the state level.What this means is that POPA could erase thirty years of legislative progress on child online safety.
POPA Uses an Honor System for an Untrustworthy Industry
Erasing related state laws would be somewhat less disastrous if POPA offered very strong protections in their place. But it doesn’t. What few “protections” POPA proposes are utterly toothless.
To begin with, POPA uses an honor system with the tech industry. It lays out the details for what kind of apps are covered under the Act, and then relies on developers to honestly report whether their apps are covered. There is no verification process and no penalty for opting out.
Given Big Tech’s long history of dishonesty, including lying under oath (see here, here, and here), it is beyond foolish to “regulate” them with a mere honor system.
Reality of the January 31st Hearing: BigTech Will Not prioritize the safety of children when using their platforms.
— National Center on Sexual Exploitation (@NCOSE) February 2, 2024
WATCH: “Big Tech BS with Lina” as she highlights some key moments and breaks down the many excuses, lies, and the #BigTechBS that CEOs delivered in this hearing. pic.twitter.com/sgtJD2bmtd
POPA’s Supposed “Age Assurance” is Meaningless
POPA claims to be all about “ensuring responsible age assurance” online, in order to protect children. However, what POPA proposes is not age assurance at all. Rather, it is the status quo of simply relying on users to self-report their age.
We know that children can and do lie about their age online. One study by Ofcom, a UK regulator, found that 32% of children have a false social media age of 18+.
Effective, privacy-protective age verification technology exists—why doesn’t POPA require its use?
In sum, POPA is nothing but a ploy from Big Tech to further entrench their ability to act with impunity. It must be urgently opposed by all who care for the safety of children.
