Why Sen. Brian Schatz thinks child safety bills can trump the First Amendment

Today, I’m talking with Senator Brian Schatz, of Hawaii. We joke that Decoder is ultimately a show about org charts, but there’s a lot of truth to it. We talked about the separate offices he has to balance against each other, and the concessions he has to make to work within the Senate structure.

We also talked a lot about two of the biggest issues in tech regulation today. One is Europe, which is doing a lot of regulation while the US does almost none. How does a senator think about the U.S. all but abdicating that space? The other is one of the few places the US is trying to take action right now: children’s online safety. Schatz is involved with two pieces of child safety legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act and the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, that could fundamentally reshape online life for teens and children across the country. But the big stumbling block for passing any laws about content moderation is, of course, the First Amendment.

Links: 

Strict Scrutiny — LII / Legal Information Institute

The Uniquely American Future of US Authoritarianism — WIRED

How the EU’s DMA is changing Big Tech: all of the news and updates — The Verge

AI Labeling Act of 2023 (S. 2691) — GovTrack.us

Mark Zuckerberg testimony: senators seem really confused about Facebook — Vox

Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis — Senate Judiciary Committee

AI tools will make it easy to create fake porn of just about anybody — The Verge

They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam — The Washington Post.

Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (S, 1291) — GovTrack.us

Kids Online Safety Act (S. 1409) — GovTrack.us

Kids Online Safety Shouldn’t Require Massive Online Censorship and Surveillance — EFF

TikTok ban: all the news on attempts to ban the video platform — The Verge

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23818699

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.  

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