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The Senate is expected to pass legislation Tuesday that is\u00a0designed to protect children from dangerous online content<\/a>, pushing forward with what would be the first major effort by Congress in decades to hold tech companies more accountable for the harm that they cause.<\/p>\n The bill has sweeping bipartisan support and has been pushed by parents of children who died by suicide after online bullying<\/a>. It would\u00a0force companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm<\/a>\u00a0on online platforms frequently used by minors, requiring them to exercise \u201cduty of care\u201d and ensure that they generally default to the safest settings possible.<\/p>\n Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who wrote the bill with Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, said the bill is about allowing children, teens and parents to take back control of their lives online, \u201cand to say to big tech, we no longer trust you to make decisions for us.\u201d<\/p>\n The House has not yet acted on the bill, but Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he will look at the bill and try to find consensus. Supporters are hoping that a strong vote in the Senate \u2014 a test vote last week moved the bill forward on an 86-1 vote \u2014 would push the House to act.<\/p>\n If the bill becomes law, companies would be required to mitigate harm to children, including bullying and violence, the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and advertisements for illegal products such as narcotics, tobacco or alcohol.<\/p>\n To do that, social media platforms would have to provide minors with options to protect their information, disable addictive product features and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations. They would also be required to limit other users from communicating with children and limit features that \u201cincrease, sustain, or extend the use\u201d of the platform \u2014 such as autoplay for videos or platform rewards.<\/p>\n The idea, Blumenthal and Blackburn say, is for the platforms to be \u201csafe by design.\u201d<\/p>\n As they have written the bill, the two senators have worked to find a balance in which companies would become more responsible for what children see online while also ensuring that Congress does not go too far in regulating what individuals post \u2014 an effort to appease lawmakers in both parties who worry regulation could impose on freedom of expression and also open up an eventual law to legal challenges.<\/p>\n In addition to First Amendment concerns, some critics have said the legislation could harm vulnerable kids who wouldn\u2019t be able to access information on LGBTQ+ issues or reproductive rights \u2014 although the bill has been revised to address many of those concerns, and major LGBTQ+ groups have decided to support the proposed legislation.<\/p>\n The bill would be the first major tech regulation package to move in years. While there has long been bipartisan support for the idea that the biggest technology companies should face more government scrutiny, there has been\u00a0little consensus<\/a>\u00a0on how it should be done. Congress passed legislation earlier this year that would\u00a0force China-based social media company TikTok to sell or face a ban<\/a>, but that law only targets one company.<\/p>\n Some tech companies, like Microsoft<\/a>, X<\/a> and Snap, are supporting the bill. Meta, which owns Facebook<\/a> and Instagram, has not taken a position.<\/p>\n\n