Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is demanding that House Republicans quickly move to pass two bills that seek to make online platforms and social media more safe for children to use.

The two bills, the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, passed with 90 yes votes in the Senate earlier this year, but neither have moved in the House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, Schumer, D-NY, rallied with families and children outside a central New York middle school to demand that House leadership quickly move to pass KOSA and COPPA before the end of the legislative session in December.

“I’ve met with countless families from New York, including right here in central New York and the North Country, and across the United States who have endured unimaginable pain and who are fighting to make sure what happened to their child doesn’t happen to others,” Schumer said. “The Senate acted, and working with these parents, teachers, and advocates, passed legislation to put our children first and protect them from the dangers of the internet and social media. Now, it’s time for the House to do its job and pass these bills ASAP to protect our children online.”

KOSA will require that social media companies and web service providers give users under age 18 an option to delete all data on them from the service, and an option to turn off algorithmic content recommendations. It would also give more power to parents with content control utilities, and would require dedicated scientific studies on the impact of social media on children and teens mental health.

COPPA would update a bill first passed in 1998, requiring that online platforms maintain no data on users under age 17, ban targeted advertising for children, and expand the definition of what platforms must take steps to protect underage users.

These bills have been supported by a number of advocates in New York including Mary Rodee, a St. Lawrence County mother whose son Riley took his own life in 2021 after being targeted and exploited on Facebook. Rodee has been working since then to pass more substantive online safety legislation at the state and federal levels, and was in attendance at Schumer’s rally on Tuesday.

Rodee said she was disappointed to see that, after all the advocacy and work she and other parents have done to get KOSA and COPPA passed in the Senate, it’s still not the law in the U.S.

“The Speaker of the House said they’re not taking it up, and I don’t understand how it’s even a choice for him at this point,” she said in an interview Tuesday afternoon.

She said while she’s been discouraged somewhat by the incredibly hard work that it’s taken to get the bills passed in the Senate, she and her fellow advocates are forging ahead with work in the House.

Rodee said she’s reached out to a number of House Representatives, including Reps. Brandon Williams, R-Syracuse, and Claudia L. Tenney, R-Cleveland, about supporting the legislation. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, is already a cosponsor of the House versions of both bills.

But Rodee said she’s found it difficult to advocate with lawmakers from districts she doesn’t vote in.

“Schumer, I can vote for him, but these representatives whose districts I’m not in, it’s very difficult to get in touch with them,” she said.

But they’re working, her and the other advocates, to get these bills passed by Congress and sent to the President. Rodee said it’s imperative they pass as soon as possible.

“We need to do this, we need this to go to the President,” she said. “Because these bills won’t totally stop it, but they’ll put in guardrails.”

She said the work seems endless, with more advocacy if both bills are signed into law. And as an educator in St. Lawrence County, Rodee said she sees worrying signs of how necessary new online safety laws are.

“It’s a marathon, and we just have to keep at it,” she said. “I’m going to walk into school tomorrow, and watch as they hand 5-year-olds Chromebooks with no training at all. And I realize, I can’t fight every battle, and I have to take this fight to Facebook and get them to keep kids safe.”

Rodee said she will continue to advocate on the issue as long as she’s needed, despite the toll it takes on her. She’s toured the country telling people about her son and how he died, giving that cautionary tale again and again.

“It seems repetitive to me, but I realize, every room I’m in there are more people who haven’t heard his story and who don’t know the dangers, and every time I tell it, more people learn about Riley and how special he was, and hopefully that story has an impact that changes things,” she said.