WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate passed

major online child safety reforms in a nearly unanimous vote on

Tuesday, although the legislation, which has drawn mixed

reactions from the tech industry, faces an uncertain fate in the

House of Representatives.

Two bills - the Children and Teens' Online Privacy

Protection Act and the Kids Online Safety Act, nicknamed COPPA

2.0 and KOSA - would need to pass in the Republican-controlled

House, currently on recess until September, to become law.

The Senate approved the bills in a rare bipartisan 91-3

vote.

COPPA 2.0 would ban targeted advertising to minors and data

collection without their consent, and give parents and kids the

option to delete their information from social media platforms.

"Kids are not your product, kids are not your profit source,

and we are going to protect them in the virtual space," Senator

Marsha Blackburn, a Republican cosponsor of KOSA, said in a

press conference after Tuesday's vote.

Maurine Molak, cofounder of ParentsSOS, a group of

parents who said their children's deaths were

linked to social media

, called the vote a "historic and emotional milestone for

myself and for all parents who have fought tirelessly to protect

our children."

Top U.S. social media platforms made an estimated $11

billion in advertising revenue from users younger than 18 in

2022, according to a Harvard study published last year.

KOSA would make explicit a "duty of care" that social media

companies have when it comes to minors using their products,

focusing on design of the platforms and regulation of the

companies.

Executives at social media sites Snap and X said at

a congressional hearing in January that they supported KOSA,

while Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms ( META ) CEO

Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said they disagreed

with parts of it.

CRITICS REMAIN

Tech industry groups and the American Civil Liberties Union

have criticized the bill, saying that differing interpretations

of harmful content could result in minors losing access to

content related to vaccines, abortion or LGBTQ issues.

Senators amended the language of the bill in response to

such concerns earlier this year, in part by limiting the

enforcement responsibility of states' attorneys general.

However even after the changes, critics remained.

"They made improvements, but not enough," Senator Ron Wyden,

a Democrat, told reporters on Monday night. "I still think it is

going to harm a lot of LGBTQ kids because of the way it's going

to make it difficult for them to get information."

He was one of the three votes against the bill on

Tuesday.

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a

think tank that receives funding from Meta, Google and

other major technology companies, called the bills flawed. KOSA

would open the door to censorship and COPPA 2.0 would cut off

revenue for services aimed at teens, the group said.

"This country needs children's online safety and privacy

legislation that strikes the right balance between protecting

consumers without infringing on their free speech rights or

stifling innovation," ITIF Senior Policy Manager Ash Johnson

said.