Markup: Child Internet Safety, AI Chatbots, AI Toys, Coast Guard Promotions

Good morning. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will come to order. Today the committee will vote on Coast Guard promotions and five bills to address the issues of kids' online safety. Online platforms offer children opportunities to learn, create and communicate. But they can also expose children to grave harms. Almost all parents today struggle with permitting their children to use and benefit from new technology because the horror stories are real. The bills before us are meant to give parents more control and assurance that their vulnerable children won't be exposed to the worst possible elements of social media and AI chat bots. Before I turn to today's legislation, I want to take a moment to recognize the parent advocates who are here. As the father of two teenage girls, nothing is more important to me than knowing that my daughters are protected from dangers that exist online and elsewhere. Thank you for your tireless advocacy. Thank you. Your work is making the internet a safer place for every family across the country. And you're fighting for the kids and grandkids of all of us. Our first bill, the Screen Act, introduced by Senator Lee with Senators Banks and Curtis, would protect children from explicit pornography by requiring such websites to identify and block access to minors. A substantially similar bill passed the House with bipartisan support. And the Supreme Court upheld a similar Texas age verification law last year. The second bill Senator Blackburn's Kids Online Safety Act, introduced with Senator Blumenthal, would set guardrails for online platforms used by minors, including social media, online video games, messaging apps, and video streamers. With seventy-five cosponsors, many of whom are on this committee, and a ninety-one to three Senate vote last Congress, COSA represents a major effort to protect children online. And I thank Senator Blackburn Turning to artificial intelligence. The chatbot act, which I introduced with Senator Schatz, Schiff and Curtis, would put parents in charge of how children use AI chatbots. The bill would require family accounts that ensure parents can oversee their child's activity. It would require parental consent before a teen could create an account and place the most pr- protective design settings on teen accounts. by default. It would also require AI companies to make reasonable efforts at stopping chatbots from presenting obscene material or facilitating suicidal ideation to minors. AI companies would be required to refer suicidal children and teens to the appropriate crisis resources and when a child or teen is connected to a family account to notify their parents. Senator Markey's Youth AI Privacy Act would help ensure that minors can benefit from AI chat bots without sacrificing their privacy or being shaped by systems that retain too much information about them. The bill would prohibit advertising to minors on chat bots and address how long a chat bot may retain and use memory from a minor's interactions. These limits would help prevent chat bots from accumulating sensitive information about children. Lastly, we have the Children's Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act, introduced by Senators Duckworth and Murkowski. The bill directs the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to conduct a study on the risks of injury to children from AI-enabled toys. It requires the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to create a joint action plan with recommendations for legislation regulations guidelines standards and education relating to the sale and marketing of ai enabled toys. Before I conclude, I wanna recognize a few exceptional staff members whose dedication often goes unnoticed. First, Stephanie Liu, who has served as a staff assistant on the Commerce Committee for twenty-three years. She has worked alongside nearly every Republican and Democrat staff member to serve on this committee. Stephanie has become a familiar face throughout the capital complex, and a trusted friend to many. Just yesterday, Senator Cantwell and I had the privilege of recognizing her twenty years of Senate service, a remarkable milestone that reflects on wavering dedication to this committee and the institution she serves. Congratulations, Stephanie. Thank you. i also wanna recognize lila helms the minority staff director her leadership has helped this committee advance numerous bipartisan reauthorization bills this summer including the weather act and the nasa authorization we've also worked together in conference rooms for hours upon hours especially upon college sports she has more than once wanted to kill me she has even more frequently wanted to kill brad grant's Uh, and we have discovered that Cuban coffee solves almost every problem that exists on planet Earth. Uh, Lila, thank you for your partnership and yesterday we recognized you for an extraordinary thirty years of federal service in in in the Senate. Uh, I did not know that you were hired at age ten, but but it is remarkable and it has benefited America. So thank you. Lastly, I'd like to recognize Paul Wasik, Deputy Policy Director for Surface Transportation. Today is Paul's last day on my staff after thirteen years of dedicated service to the Senate. Throughout his tenure, he has been instrumental in shepherding key priorities, including PHMSA reauthorization and legislation affecting international bridges in Texas. Paul, your expertise, steady leadership, and deep institutional knowledge has been invaluable not only to my office but to this committee as well and you have worked with with members of this committee on both sides for a long time you will be greatly missed and i wish you great success in your next chapter thank you paul and with that i recognize ranking member cantwell

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and sorry to be late to the hearing, but the State of Washington is facing historic fires. In fact, we are the highest risk fires in the nation and the highest resource. And we were on a call with the various uh Ag Secretary, uh DOI, and many people trying to get a plan for continuing to address the wildfires in Spokane and throughout Washington State. So, again, uh I'm sorry for being late to this very important hearing. I too wanna thank Stephanie Liu for her great service. It was great to give her uh a pin. I didn't realize you got a a con like it almost looks like our little congressional pin.

It does.

So I I don't know if that

I'm expecting Lila to go on the floor and start voting.

So I I uh so appreciate her hard work over these many years and uh uh her many stories about various chairmen of this committee and certainly remembering the various uh assets and resources that it takes to make this committee function so uh want to basically uh thank stephanie for that and for her leadership and definitely there are no words to describe the invaluable contributions of lila helms in fact i i threatened to have a picture of lila of you with every chairman and uh ranking member but i don't know if we've produced those yet so we'll have to save those for a future a future mark up but um Lila uh coming back from the private sector having served here for many many years in the Senate is what you always hope for somebody with great experience great knowledge great expertise and willing to come back to the Hill to make things happen so clearly the many many things that we have been able to make happen uh in the Senate Commerce Committee could not have happened without her help and contribution and um her steadfast uh commitment to the priorities that we have on uh on our side of the aisle so Lila my dearest dearest thanks for all of that and cannot imagine um what thirty years looks like on the hill but uh we will we will uh chronicle again these great accomplishments the chairman mentioned a few of late but um over the history many uh i don't know even know mister chairman if the public really does have a a sense of the many contributions that are made here by by staff and the many contributions that make up a legislative process. Oftentimes the Commerce Committee is known for negotiating for weeks and weeks and weeks, but people don't realize that somewhere around five o'clock, they kind of grind into a all-night session, and that staff often negotiate all night to come to the final agreements, on amendments and processes, and then show up here as if they went home and had a rested night. So, uh, that kind of dedication goes on day in and day out and the products of today's mark-up as it relates to the kids' bills are just another example of that uh i'm sure they were working if not all night close to all night last night to get us prepared for so what you see here we get to benefit but in reality it's the hard work behind us and lila those thirty years uh have meant a lot to the united states and thank you for Thank you for that service. That that pin is well deserved and yeah, she could she could go out out there on the floor with that. Um, mister Chairman, turning to the mark-up and the issues at hand today, we have five bills and five Coast Guard nominees, and I'm pleased to advance four measures today that will help protect kids from harm and from using social media and A I, including the Kids Online Safety Act, which has twenty-four spons seventy-four sponsors and was passed on the floor in twenty twenty four by an overwhelming ninety three to one vote. Children and teens face real risk of harm in online and we have lost too many we've lost too many. Congress um needs to do more, and in my state in Washington, Sophia Humphries, brilliant Lynch and Avery Ping, under the age of twenty one lost their lives to fentanyl poisoning after obtaining pills through a dealer they met on Snapchat. Their parents recently signed a letter to Senator Cruz and myself urging that we come together to pass the strongest possible legislation to keep children safe from the harms of social media. I believe the Kids Online Safety Act from Senators Blackburn and Blumenthal, who I saw Senator Blumenthal here in back of the uh room, does just that. It imposes a duty of care on social media platforms so that these companies have to take reasonable care to make sure they are not creating harm in implementing products that harm kids. We need more responsibility from social media companies, and COSA gives parents the tools that help make them accountable when they prioritize engagement over keeping our kids safe. COSA also requires social media companies to per- s- to set protective default settings for kids, including limiting design features that encourage or increase the time kids spend scrolling on social media. And COSA would require covered platforms to have a mechanism for users to report harms on the platform, the platform is required to respond to each report. I wanna recognize the parents that are here today as well. Thank you all for being here. I know that too many of you um have lost children to the harms of social media, and I can't imagine the tireless advocacy that you have gone through. Thank you so much for being here and being part of today's today's mark-up. I hope we can get this bill these bills to the President's desk as soon as possible. so that no more parents have to experience what you have to experience. The Chatbot Act by Senators uh Cruz and Schatz and Curtis also includes more uh tools that parents can use to help protect kids online. The Chatbot Act would give parents more control over kids' interaction with A I. For example, the bill requires A I Chatbot providers to give parents the option to limit the amount of time their kids spend using the Chatbot and options to disable push alerts and reward incentives. These settings are automatically set at the most protective settings for kids unless a parent decides to change them. This bill takes an important step, but I don't think we can stop here. While giving parents more tools to uh protect their kids in an important while this is an important first step, we need to ensure that AI chatbot providers are designating safe products and default protections built in to reduce the risk of this compulsive use, which is so addicting, and to the harms that come from it. And that is why the second chatbot bill we will consider today from Senator Markey is also important. Senator Markey's Youth AI Privacy Act requires those AI chatbots to implement certain safe design features for the use of minors, including providing clear and repeated warnings to kids that the chatbox is not human, disabling push alerts, and rewards incentive based on time and uh limiting the amount of time the chat box can recall past conversations with user. This bill also establishes strong privacy safeguards for the data chat box collect for minors and prohibits advertising to minors. Finally, and critically, I'm pleased that the both chat bot bills, including floor preemption provisions to ensure that states can continue to enact greater protections for kids. The children's artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act by Senator Duckworth requires the National Academies of Science and Engineering to conduct an AI study on an um AI enabled toys. The study will examine the risk of injury and social and emotional and educational outcomes for children using those toys. Additionally, the bill directs the Federal Commission uh Trade Commission and Consumer Product Safety Commission to prepare joint action plans with recommendations on the use of those toys in providing safety. I am concerned about the risk posed by these AI enabled toys, especially to young children, and I hope that this study will help us with an action plan here and meaningful recommendations for the future and help spur the CPSC to take action to protect kids from harm proposed by those toys. Finally, considering the Screen Act by Senators Lee and Curtis, while I appreciate my colleagues' goal of trying to protect children, I can't support the bill as written today, but look forward to

Thank you. I now recognize ranking member Cantwell for a motion.

Mister Chairman, I move that PN eleven seventy four p n eleven seventy five p n eleven seventy six coast guard promotions be favorably reported

is there a second

second

the clerk will call the roll

mister thun

i'm at proxy

mister wicker

aye

mrs. fisher mister moran

i'm at proxy

mister sullivan mrs. blackburn mister young mister bud

aye

mister schmidt

i buy proxy

mister curtis

aye

mister marino

so

i buy proxy

mister sheehy

aye yeah

mrs. capito

aye

miss lummis

aye

miss cantwell

aye

miss klobuchar

i buy proxy

mister schatz mister markey

i buy proxy

mister peters

aye

miss baldwin

aye

miss duckworth

aye

miss rosen

aye

mister luhan

aye

mister hickenlooper

i by proxy

mister federman

i by proxy

mister kim

i by proxy

miss blount rochester

aye

mister cruz

aye

yeses are twenty eight

The motion is agreed to and the nominations are ordered to be reported favorably. Uh, I recognize Senator Curtis for motion.

I move that S seven thirty seven screen act as amended by the Curtis substitute as modified be favorably reported.

Is there a second?

Second.

A roll call vote please, Mister Chairman.

Uh, the clerk will call the roll.

Mister.

How about proxy?

mister wicker

aye

mrs. fisher

aye

mister moran

aye

uh by proxy

aye

mister sullivan

aye

mrs. blackburn

aye

mr. young

aye

mister bud

aye

mister schmidt

uh by proxy

mister curtis

aye

mister merino

uh by proxy

mister sheehy

aye

mrs. capito

aye

miss lemus

aye

miss cantwell

no

miss Klobuchar

no by proxy

mister schatz

aye

no

no

mister markey mister peters

no

miss baldwin miss duckworth miss rosen

so far

mister luhan

no

mister hickenlooper

i have no idea

no by proxy

mister federman

no by proxy

Mister Kim.

No, by proxy.

Miss Blount-Rochester. Mister Cruz.

Aye.

The ayes are fifteen, the no's are thirteen, with four yes proxy votes.

Mister Chairman. Mister Chairman, I note that there are not enough members in the room voting to advance the screen act.

While the motion is agreed to, we do not have a sufficient number of members present to favorably report out the bill. Uh, I now recognize ranking member Cantwell for motion.

Mister Chairman. Mister Chairman, I move that S seventeen forty eight, the kids online safety act as amended by the Blackburn substitute as modified, be favorably reported.

Is there a second? Second. Is there any, is there any discussion?

Mister Chairman.

Senator Sullivan.

Thank you Mister Chairman, I wanna commend uh Senator Blackburn, Senator Blumenthal, on the kids online safety act. I was an original cosponsor of this very important legislation. I wanna thank the parents and families that are also here supporting this. This is a bill we must move. And as Senator Cantwell mentioned, uh this moved out of the Senate last year or two years ago with over ninety votes. And then it was killed in the house by

Ninety nine.

some of the big tech influencers that don't wanna see this bill become law. I have an amendment at the desk, Mister Chairman, that would incorporate into this bill my advancing digital support for mental health services act, or ADDS for mental health act, which is a bipartisan bill. This committee approved unanimously last year, and then the Senate approved unanimously last year. The amendment takes a simple complimentary approach to protecting young people online, using the reach of these tech platforms to connect young people with help and resources. The ads for mental health act would require social media platforms to report annually to the FTC on the amount of public service advertising they provide, which is actually not much. That transparency creates greater accountability and an incentive for these platforms to put mental health resources and potentially lifesaving information in front of their users. We should make sure that when people encounter online platforms, they have access to trusted mental health resources and local support services. Someone who is struggling should be able to find not only information about getting help, but resources available within their own community. And as we work through COSA, and again I wanna commend Senator Blackburn, Senator Blumenthal, and so many others,

Right.

to make the internet safer for children, My amendment would help ensure that when young people are struggling, they are more likely to encounter messages that point them Oh, yeah, sorry, I'm just getting messages. You can put towards getting help rather than being harmed. Oh, I don't think you're gonna get them. So I know we wanna move a clean COSA bill out of the committee today. And as we put together a broader kids' safety package on the Senate floor and work with the House in conference on this important piece of legislation, I'm hopeful that my ads for mental health amendment would be included in this broader kids online safety legislation. And with that, Mister Chairman, I will withdraw my amendment.

Mister Chairman.

Senator Blackburn.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. I appreciate Senator Sullivan's work with us on this. He and I have discussed this amendment and his desire to move forward his legislation, which we all voted for in committee and we voted for when it was on the floor. And he has my commitment to continue to advocate as we build out a broader kids' on-line safety package with uh some of including some of the bills that we are going to pass today but to advocate for passage and inclusion of his bill.

Thank you, Senator Blackburn.

Thank you, and and I will echo that sentiment, Senator Sullivan's amendment is a good amendment, it is a positive amendment, as he rightly noted, it has passed this committee previously, it has passed the senate previously, and and I am happy to work with him to try to get it passed and signed into law, because it would be beneficial.

to the people of Alaska and and to people all across our nation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

If there is no further discussion, the question is on Senator Cantwell's motion. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. All those opposed say no. The ayes have it, the motion is agreed to, and the bill is ordered to be reported favorably.

Mister Chairman.

Uh, Senator Lemes.

I would ask that, um, we give permission for those parents of children who have been lost uh because of online activity to just stand up and tell us their child's first name so we can acknowledge and honor the loss that these families have experienced uh and to uh express to them our deepest sorrow for your loss and our desire uh to move forward with legislation to prevent other parents and family members from dealing with the pain that you all are dealing with.

uh i think that's a good suggestion and if the parent advocates wish to do so you're you're certainly welcome to do so now Thank you. And and we honor your children's legacy. And thank you for using the pain and agony and suffering that you've experienced. Thank you for channeling it into trying to protect other kids. Thank you, Senator Lomas.

Uh, I recognize ranking member Cantwell for an additional motion.

Mister Chairman, I move that S four one nine nine, the youth ai privacy act as amended by the marquee substitute as modified bud one, lummis one and lummis two be favorably reported.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion? Uh, I'm gonna offer cruise one as modified. uh this amendment is straightforward it would empower parents to make decisions for their children although i appreciate senator markey's uh work to improve this bill one significant problem remains

uh yes mmm

the bill imposes a one side size fits all limit on how long a chatbot may remember its interactions with a child capping overall memory retention at thirty days a default period for memory retention makes sense But parents must also be able to choose a different period or opt out of automatic deletion. Long-term memory can make these tools more useful in certain circumstances. For example, when a child is learning a language or a teenager is managing a small business. At the very least, the federal government should not forcibly substitute its judgment for that of parents. My amendment preserves both the default and parental choice, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

mr. chairman

senator markey

yup thank you mr. chairman um first of all i just wanna thank you and um ranking member cantwell for uh your work to help to protect kids online and for your support for advancing my youth ai privacy act the um the um yap act uh and i can't thank you enough and uh And um, uh to all of the family members who are here, we're just so sorry for your loss, just absolutely terrible and that's why we're meeting today for for you. Um, and I appreciate the chairman's work with me, eh but on this amendment I do oppose it. Um, the Youth AI Privacy Act, as originally introduced, directed the Federal Trade Commission to establish limits on how long an AI chatbot could use a minor's personal data to shape its responses. those limits prevent a chatbot from endlessly drawing on a child's responses to personalize future conversations extended highly personalized interactions can deepen a child's emotional attachment to a chatbot and make safety safeguards less effective as part of our substitute amendment i agreed to remove the federal trade commission rulemaking and allow a parent through verifiable parental consent to extend the memory period up to thirty days. Um, this amendment, um, uh, would remove that thirty day ceiling. Um, uh, the amendment would permit the ongoing use of all minors' personal disclosures about relationships and fears and health, emotional state and vulnerabilities to shape future responses, without a meaningfully, without a meaningful outer limit. The companies will have every incentive to push families towards the longest possible setting, by marketing it as more convenient, more personalized, or necessary. for the chatbot to truly know the child the thirty day limit is a reasonable guardrail against effectively um uh uh having a permanent memory for minors um i urge a no vote but i say that uh saying that i would also be open to a continuing discussion uh with the chairman on this issue uh but for uh this moment i would urge a no vote

Is there any further discussion?

M- Mister Chairman, just speaking in support of Senator Markey's position, the longer kids interact with the chatbot, the more data the chatbot can collect, the more manipulative the chatbot can become, and I understand that thirty days may not necessarily have been the perfect day, but allowing unlimited chatbot memory is too dangerous, and so I support Senator Markey. I wanna say that the parents groups also support Senator Markey in opposing Senator Cruz's amendment.

thank you and i think that point is generally correct but i also think that parents know their kids best and and ought to be able to make decisions for their own children, as appropriate for their kids. uh if there's no further discussion the clerk will call the roll

mister thun

aye by proxy

mister wicker

aye

mrs. fisher

aye

mister moran

aye by proxy

mister sullivan mrs. blackburn

aye

mr. young

aye

mr. bud mr. schmidt

uh by proxy

mr. curtis

aye

mr. marino

uh by proxy

mr. sheehy

aye

mrs. capito

aye

miss lemus

aye

miss cantwell

no

miss klobuchar

no by proxy

mr. schatz

no

mr. markey

no

mr. peters

no

miss baldwin

no

miss duckworth

no

miss rosen

no

mister lujan mister hickenlooper

no by proxy

mister federman

no by proxy

mister kim

no by proxy

miss blunt rochester mister cruz

aye

the ayes are fifteen the no's are thirteen

the amendment is agreed to if there's no further discussion the question is on senator cantwell's motion All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. All those opposed say no. The motion is agreed to and the bill is ordered to be reported favorably. I recognize Senator, Ranking Member Cantwell, for an additional motion.

Mister Chairman, I move that S four four O seven, the chatbot act, as amended by the cruise shots Curtis substitute, as modified, Kim one as modified, and Kim two as modified, and S five one seven one the children's artificial intelligence toy safety act of twenty twenty six as amended by the duckworth substitute as modified be favorably reported

is there a second

second

all those in favor say aye

aye

aye all those opposed say no the motion is agreed to and the bills are ordered to be reported favorably i ask for unanimous consent that staff are authorized to make technical and conforming changes without objection so ordered

we can have a talk

are there members wishing to make remarks on agenda items

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman.

Uh, uh, Senator Blackburn.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I am really pleased we have moved the Kids Online Safety Act today,

This is a public interest.

and I'm so pleased that we have so many of the parent advocates that are here with us today.

Yeah.

And you mentioned how they have turned their grief into action, and Senator Blumenthal and I are really grateful for the amount of time they have spent with us. This has been a years-long process, and I know it gets frustrating sometime. And as we have worked to find the best way to bring this bill forward. Now, many of you have mentioned it went through the Senate last year, ninety-one to three. And we are grateful that it is moving forward again. I I think one of the important things that we're seeing today is we're sending a message to big tech that the era of big tech profiting off of our children is over. And Congress is moving forward to make certain that they have to accept responsibility for the foreseeable harms that their products cause. And some of these companies have come to the table to work with us and to move COSA forward, and some are continuing to turn a blind eye to the harm that they are inflicting. So Pardon me. I think the message to those tech companies is simply this. We have arrived at a time where we are going to pass this, we are going to get it signed into law, and we will do it in spite of all the money that they have spent opposing this this legislation. Um, the bill does have, and I wanted to point this out, uh, seventy-five cosponsors in the Senate. And we are looking forward to making certain that our friends over in the House realize the support that this has in this body and that the House has an opportunity and also a responsibility to finish the job. Now, the Senate cannot and will not accept the version that the house passed earlier, it is toothless. And it is a very pale imitation of the Senate version, and therefore it is a pale imitation of big tech accountability. And the parents have waited a long time. I am grateful the Senate Commerce Committee has again spoken on this issue and appreciate the leadership the chairman has brought to the issue. Thank you, Mister Chairman.

Thank you. Uh, Senator Duckworth.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. Um, I asked to recognize or offer brief remarks on S fifty one seventy one, the Children's Artificial Intelligence Choice Safety Act. I'm pleased that this bill has passed, um, that we in this chamber has passed a simple bipartisan bill, and I thank Senators Murkowski, Klobuchar and Curtis for co-sponsoring the bill. AI chat bots such as chatGPT are being embedded in children's toys, including plush animals, robots, and dolls, which are then marketed to young kids. Alarmingly, independent testing of these AI-enabled toys, often equipped with speakers and microphones, found them discussing sexually explicit content and explaining where to find knives and pills in the household. One example even showed a toy telling the user where to find matches and providing instructions on how to light those matches. Despite these findings, sellers of ai enabled toys claim that their products are providing social and educational benefits for children. But the fact is, we know little about the impacts of embedding ai chatbots in children's toys. And there currently is no federal safety standard that addresses the ai inside a toy. Current mandatory standards cover only physical hazards, such as choking, lead, and flammability. In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission testified to Congress that it lacks authority to intervene in emotional, mental, and social injury, even if the potential risk is right in front of us. In addition to unfounded claims of educational benefits, sellers do not consistently inform consumers about how children's data privacy will be protected. And earlier this year, I asked FTC to investigate whether AI enabled toys are being marketed using unfair or deceptive practices. I have not yet received a response. The bipartisan children's AI Toy Safety Act addresses these policy gaps by requiring the ftc and cpsc to provide congress a coordinated actionable plan to address ai enabled toy products my bill also tasks the national academies of sciences engineering and medicine to conduct a comprehensive study into ai enabled toys including examining potential risk to children's data privacy and their physical mental emotional and social well-being this study will finally deliver the independent evidence families need to make informed decisions for their children This bill does not intrude into our preempt state law or preempt state laws in any way, and it allows CPSC and FTC to act now, instead of waiting for the conclusion of a study. It strikes the right balance of empowering consumers and protecting our children's development and well-being on an emerging complex issue. I thank the Chairman, the Ranking Member, and my colleagues for voting in support of this bipartisan common sense bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Senator Curtis.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, as we all know the digital world is changing faster than parents can keep up with it. And our kids are growing up in an online environment that barely existed a few years ago. My wife and I raised six children and um we thought it was complicated when we raised them, and now I have expecting my nineteenth grandchild in a couple of weeks. And I can't fathom what they have to navigate to get through this environment. The bills we advanced today are an important step toward giving families the tools and transparency they need to keep their kids safe. I want to thank the chairman, ranking member Cantwell, and everyone who worked together in good faith to get us here. I'm especially proud to be a co-lead sponsor of the chatbot act, with chairman Cruz, senator Schatz, and Schiff. Chairman Cruz was collaborative throughout this process and incorporated several ideas Senator Schiff and I advanced in our safe kids act. I'm also proud to be a partner with Senator Lee on the screen act, and commit to work with him and my other colleagues to advance that onto the Senate floor. We have to get this right. That means protecting children without stifling innovation, empowering parents without leaving them on their own, and writing laws that will still make sense years from now. But our work isn't finished today. I'm continuing to push to advance bipartisan bills from my colleagues and to hold platforms accountable for their harms and products they create, help users distinguish authentic content from AI slop and close loopholes that allow youth to access content they shouldn't see. Parents shouldn't have to carry this burden alone. Plant platforms have a responsibility. Congress has a responsibility. And we should keep working together to build a safer digital world for our kids. Today's votes are meaningful progress, but they're not the finish line. Thank you very much.

Mister Chairman.

Uh, Senator Caput.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and I wanna thank uh Senator Cantwell too for her advocacy in this area as I I'm sitting close to a lot of the parent uh advocates and the pain and the suffering never goes away and uh the sorrow and so as a parent myself uh I I just can't imagine uh when you put your head on the pillow at night uh the disturbing thoughts that you have every night and so I think this is a really important, important day not just for you all but for the rest of the country so I wanna thank you um I've been an original cosponsor of the uh, child's uh, uh, kids online safety act. It unimaginable to me that we could pass it, which is a large margin, and still not get it across the finish line. Um, Senator Curtis trumped me with his, what did he say, nineteen grandchildren, so now I I have nine. I thought that was pretty good. But but

Good start.

it's a good start. Thank you. Thank you. Mm-hmm. I'll I'll inform the my three children that's a start. Um But when I watch them and I see what's in front of them, and I can only imagine in ten years what's gonna be in front of them again, you know, some of them are still quite young. And uh we've we've had a lot of hearings on the addictive nature, and and how things creep into your feet, and what the schools are doing. So this is really probably I think the most important part, is the safety part. Um so the guardrails on the platforms uh are frequently used by children that, you know, it can we we need to have these guardrails to protect them and shield them. You know, if the pushback is we can't do it or it's too complicated from uh the on-line uh folks, quite honestly we don't believe you. We don't believe that. And I think our overwhelming vote today shows that. And so we can better safeguard our youth and filter out violent sexual and deceptive content that they may encounter. Uh, as technology and access to materials continues to evolve, this bill will help our Congress Uh, stay up to date. That's another problem. Everything changes so rapidly and so quickly that the emerging risks are very difficult to see. So I wanna thank Senator uh Blackburn in particular and Senator Blumenthal for their continued dedication to this issue. But I particularly wanna thank all of you for coming and being here with us today. And uh, let's push this all the way across the finish line. Thank you, Mister Chair. Mister Chairman.