The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was first introduced in 2023, but never made it to President Biden’s desk. Now, the bill is back in the Senate and many fear that it could pass this time.
While the bill claims to protect children, it is really just setting up a censorship regime disguised as a “duty of care” that will suppress lawful, important speech online — especially for smaller companies. The bill will require platforms “exercise reasonable care” to prevent and mitigate harms to minors, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use, bullying, and “compulsive usage.”
But essentially the bill will allow the government agencies to sue platforms that don’t block or restrict content someone later claims contributed to one of these harms. While large companies like Apple and X will be able to easily manage such regulation (which is why they support it), smaller companies will likely over-censor to avoid litigation and liability. Because the list of harms in KOSA’s “duty of care” provision is so broad and vague, no platform knows how the government plans to interpret content. Will simple posts like “love your body,” “stay away from drugs” or “here’s how I overcame my eating disorder” be considered harmful? If so, support groups and anit-harm communities will be driven offline and many children who turn to the internet for this kind of support will be left in the dark.
While the bill means well, it uses vague terms like “compulsive usage” that have no clinical definition. While it may sound official and scientific, it’s really just legislative jargon that will leave much to interpretation. While the bill says it won’t be biased based on one viewpoint or another, the text of the bill says otherwise. It essentially allows the FTC to sue a platform if minors have access to discussions about LGBTQ identity, eating disorders, or other mental health issues.
Sarah Philips, campaigner at Fight for the Future, is encouraging people to speak out against the bill.
“We know the truth: rightwing actors want to stifle young people’s voices online,” she says.
“They’ve laid this strategy out in Project 2025. They’ve told us over and over again that they intend to strip speech so that marginalized communities can’t speak truth to power. They can say this is about accountability for Big Tech all they want, but with the likes of Elon Musk standing next to them, none of it rings true. Our communities are trying to survive repression and the gutting of important resources, and online spaces are a safe haven for LGBTQ youth when their resources in their schools and communities shrink. It is unbelievable that Senator Blumenthal and Senator Schumer can ignore everything going on around them for more political theater on a bill that would help silence any opposition to Trump. Senate Democrats need to wake up and look around. Any Democrat still sponsoring KOSA is co-signing fascism. Stop doing their dirty work.”
This bill seems to be a slippery slope to online censorship for everyone as opposed to actually protecting children.
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