https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...r-kids-online-safety-law/ar-AA1EPMZn#comments
A sweeping kids’ online safety bill has new life — and a powerful new ally.
On Wednesday, senators from both parties reintroduced the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA. The bill would hold social media companies responsible for taking “reasonable” care to avoid product design features that put minors in danger of self-harm, substance abuse or sexual exploitation. It also would require online platforms to activate their strongest privacy settings by default for minors and allow them to disable “addictive” product features.
KOSA passed the Senate last year by a 91-3 vote, a level of bipartisan support that’s rare these days. It died in the House, however, amid a Big Tech lobbying push and concerns by Republican leadership and digital-rights groups that it would lead to censorship.
This time around, the bill’s authors have lined up a big-name industry backer.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), who first introduced KOSA in 2022, announced on Wednesday that they’ve gained Apple’s support for this version of the bill.
“Everyone has a part to play in keeping kids safe online, and we believe your legislation will have a meaningful impact on children’s online safety,” Apple’s senior director for government affairs, Timothy Powderly, wrote in a letter to Blackburn and Blumenthal. He added that Apple hopes the bill represents “the first steps toward comprehensive privacy legislation” that would protect adults’ online privacy as well.
The reintroduced bill’s text is the same as the version that was amended in December in a last-ditch bid to ease the right’s censorship concerns.
Apple’s support comes as Congress and several states are eyeing age-verification laws that would put the onus on Apple and Google to identify minors online.
Apple might view KOSA, which does not mandate age verification, as a more palatable approach than those state measures when it comes to protecting young users. On Thursday, an Apple spokesperson pointed to Apple’s own recent “age assurance” proposal and reiterated a point in Powderly’s letter that suggested the company’s support was due to changes made to the bill last year to enhance privacy protections.
Microsoft, Snap and Elon Musk’s X are among the other tech firms that have previously backed the bill, with Musk’s support considered especially noteworthy due to his influence with the Republican Party’s right wing. On the other side, platform giants Meta and Google, as well as the trade group NetChoice, have opposed it.
So far, the tech companies opposing the bill have fought a lot harder than the ones supporting it.
KOSA has a real chance to pass, but a long way to go.
The reintroduced bill has the support of Senate leadership: Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York). That gives it a strong chance to pass the Senate again.
But the House once again may pose obstacles. Last year, it fell short due in part to a lack of support from a pair of powerful Louisiana Republicans: House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who said they worried the bill would lead to online censorship. The Wall Street Journal reported in November that platform giants Meta and Google had led a lobbying blitz that helped torpedo KOSA’s chances.
NetChoice was quick to blast the bill’s reintroduction Wednesday, issuing a statement that called it “landmark censorship legislation” that would establish a “speech code for the internet.”
Staffers familiar with the bill told the Tech Brief they’re cautiously optimistic that the results will be different this time.
The staff members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss sensitive political ramifications, cited several factors they believe could work in their favor beyond Apple’s support.
Among them is new leadership on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky), has expressed interest in bills to protect kids online.
They also believe time is on their side, with fresh reports of online harms to kids intensifying the pressure from advocates on Congress to act. Blackburn and Blumenthal pointed to recent reports that Meta’s chatbots talked sex with kids and Instagram’s recommendations helped sexual predators find minors on the platform.
The passage last month of the Take It Down Act, which criminalizes nonconsensual intimate imagery online and requires online platforms to quickly remove it, suggested that there is a bipartisan coalition in this Congress for such legislation. That bill had an influential champion in first lady Melania Trump, who has not yet taken a position on KOSA.
The bill’s reintroduction prompted an outpouring of support Wednesday from child safety advocates.
Blackburn and Blumenthal included statements from numerous parents of teenagers who have died or taken their own lives after being scammed, bullied, offered drugs or enticed by dangerous viral “challenges” on social media platforms.
“It’s been more than four years since I lost my son, Riley, to suicide when he was only 15 years old after a sinister stranger found him on Facebook and sextorted him,” said Riley Basford’s mother, Mary Rodee. “One of the few ways I’ve found to cope since then is to advocate for social media reforms that will protect other children from the abuse Riley experienced.”
Alix Fraser of the advocacy group Issue One said, “History is watching, and it won’t judge this Congress kindly if they prioritize protecting Big Tech companies’ profit margins above the children that are our country’s future.”
Kris Perry, executive director of the nonprofit Children and Screens, said KOSA is backed by mounting scientific evidence of the “profound impact of digital environments on children’s mental health, sleep, cognitive development and overall well-being.”
Still, conservatives and tech giants aren’t the only ones with qualms.
A previous version of KOSA ran into opposition from civil rights organizations, who feared it would be weaponized to silence LGBTQ+ teens and other marginalized groups online. Changes to the bill in 2024 persuaded some of those groups, including GLAAD, to rescind their opposition.
But some free-speech advocates still say KOSA would give the federal government too much power to pressure online platforms into censoring disfavored views. And while the bill aims to skirt First Amendment issues by holding tech companies responsible for “design features” rather than content, some legal experts are skeptical of the distinction.
“Trump has made it clear he intends to weaponize every government agency under his command to target speech that he does not like, whether it’s about abortion, trans rights or the war in Gaza,” said Evan Greer, director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future. Greer said KOSA will give his administration a new way to go after groups that use online platforms to provide resources for abortion or support LGBTQ communities.
A sweeping kids’ online safety bill has new life — and a powerful new ally.
On Wednesday, senators from both parties reintroduced the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA. The bill would hold social media companies responsible for taking “reasonable” care to avoid product design features that put minors in danger of self-harm, substance abuse or sexual exploitation. It also would require online platforms to activate their strongest privacy settings by default for minors and allow them to disable “addictive” product features.
KOSA passed the Senate last year by a 91-3 vote, a level of bipartisan support that’s rare these days. It died in the House, however, amid a Big Tech lobbying push and concerns by Republican leadership and digital-rights groups that it would lead to censorship.
This time around, the bill’s authors have lined up a big-name industry backer.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), who first introduced KOSA in 2022, announced on Wednesday that they’ve gained Apple’s support for this version of the bill.
“Everyone has a part to play in keeping kids safe online, and we believe your legislation will have a meaningful impact on children’s online safety,” Apple’s senior director for government affairs, Timothy Powderly, wrote in a letter to Blackburn and Blumenthal. He added that Apple hopes the bill represents “the first steps toward comprehensive privacy legislation” that would protect adults’ online privacy as well.
The reintroduced bill’s text is the same as the version that was amended in December in a last-ditch bid to ease the right’s censorship concerns.
Apple’s support comes as Congress and several states are eyeing age-verification laws that would put the onus on Apple and Google to identify minors online.
Apple might view KOSA, which does not mandate age verification, as a more palatable approach than those state measures when it comes to protecting young users. On Thursday, an Apple spokesperson pointed to Apple’s own recent “age assurance” proposal and reiterated a point in Powderly’s letter that suggested the company’s support was due to changes made to the bill last year to enhance privacy protections.
Microsoft, Snap and Elon Musk’s X are among the other tech firms that have previously backed the bill, with Musk’s support considered especially noteworthy due to his influence with the Republican Party’s right wing. On the other side, platform giants Meta and Google, as well as the trade group NetChoice, have opposed it.
So far, the tech companies opposing the bill have fought a lot harder than the ones supporting it.
KOSA has a real chance to pass, but a long way to go.
The reintroduced bill has the support of Senate leadership: Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York). That gives it a strong chance to pass the Senate again.
But the House once again may pose obstacles. Last year, it fell short due in part to a lack of support from a pair of powerful Louisiana Republicans: House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who said they worried the bill would lead to online censorship. The Wall Street Journal reported in November that platform giants Meta and Google had led a lobbying blitz that helped torpedo KOSA’s chances.
NetChoice was quick to blast the bill’s reintroduction Wednesday, issuing a statement that called it “landmark censorship legislation” that would establish a “speech code for the internet.”
Staffers familiar with the bill told the Tech Brief they’re cautiously optimistic that the results will be different this time.
The staff members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss sensitive political ramifications, cited several factors they believe could work in their favor beyond Apple’s support.
Among them is new leadership on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky), has expressed interest in bills to protect kids online.
They also believe time is on their side, with fresh reports of online harms to kids intensifying the pressure from advocates on Congress to act. Blackburn and Blumenthal pointed to recent reports that Meta’s chatbots talked sex with kids and Instagram’s recommendations helped sexual predators find minors on the platform.
The passage last month of the Take It Down Act, which criminalizes nonconsensual intimate imagery online and requires online platforms to quickly remove it, suggested that there is a bipartisan coalition in this Congress for such legislation. That bill had an influential champion in first lady Melania Trump, who has not yet taken a position on KOSA.
The bill’s reintroduction prompted an outpouring of support Wednesday from child safety advocates.
Blackburn and Blumenthal included statements from numerous parents of teenagers who have died or taken their own lives after being scammed, bullied, offered drugs or enticed by dangerous viral “challenges” on social media platforms.
“It’s been more than four years since I lost my son, Riley, to suicide when he was only 15 years old after a sinister stranger found him on Facebook and sextorted him,” said Riley Basford’s mother, Mary Rodee. “One of the few ways I’ve found to cope since then is to advocate for social media reforms that will protect other children from the abuse Riley experienced.”
Alix Fraser of the advocacy group Issue One said, “History is watching, and it won’t judge this Congress kindly if they prioritize protecting Big Tech companies’ profit margins above the children that are our country’s future.”
Kris Perry, executive director of the nonprofit Children and Screens, said KOSA is backed by mounting scientific evidence of the “profound impact of digital environments on children’s mental health, sleep, cognitive development and overall well-being.”
Still, conservatives and tech giants aren’t the only ones with qualms.
A previous version of KOSA ran into opposition from civil rights organizations, who feared it would be weaponized to silence LGBTQ+ teens and other marginalized groups online. Changes to the bill in 2024 persuaded some of those groups, including GLAAD, to rescind their opposition.
But some free-speech advocates still say KOSA would give the federal government too much power to pressure online platforms into censoring disfavored views. And while the bill aims to skirt First Amendment issues by holding tech companies responsible for “design features” rather than content, some legal experts are skeptical of the distinction.
“Trump has made it clear he intends to weaponize every government agency under his command to target speech that he does not like, whether it’s about abortion, trans rights or the war in Gaza,” said Evan Greer, director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future. Greer said KOSA will give his administration a new way to go after groups that use online platforms to provide resources for abortion or support LGBTQ communities.
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