After a failed attempt last year to pass the bill, U.S. Senators have reintroduced the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). It is now modified to reduce its potential impact on marginalized communities, which was the main reason why it faced opposition from civil liberties groups.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill imposing sweeping obligations on tech platforms to protect children that use them, has been revived in the Senate after a failed sprint to become law late last year. The bill’s lead sponsors, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), reintroduced the bill roughly five months after it died in the House of Representatives after a 90+ vote to pass it in the Senate.
KOSA would require online platforms to take steps to mitigate harms like depression and eating disorders to children that use their services, and would also require certain default privacy settings for their accounts. Parents who have lost children to drug overdoses they trace back to social media platforms and suicide following relentless bullying have led the charge in advocating for the bill, believing it would have helped their own kids and others like them.
But like other kids safety legislation introduced across the country, KOSA has faced persistent criticism from groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Fight for the Future, which warn it could be used by politically motivated enforcers to target marginalized groups, including transgender kids. They also fear the bill’s liability regime could incentivize tech platforms to remove a wide range of resources that might be helpful for such kids, fearing that it could subject them to legal consequences.
There has been noticeable support for the bill now that tech companies like Apple and X have endorsed KOSA. As for Apple, it seems that this is related to their ongoing fight with Meta on whether App Stores or Apps should be responsible for age verification.
The reintroduced bill contains the same text approved by the Senate with “several changes to further make clear that KOSA would not censor, limit, or remove any content from the internet,” the press release says. It also doesn’t allow the Federal Trade Commission or states to initiate lawsuits over content or speech.
Apple has expressed support for the bill, as it continues to battle Meta over whether apps or app stores should be responsible for safeguarding children online. “Apple is pleased to offer our support for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA),” Timothy Powderly, Apple’s senior director of government affairs for the Americas, said in a statement. “Everyone has a part to play in keeping kids safe online, and we believe [this] legislation will have a meaningful impact on children’s online safety.”
Looking at KOSA, it now appears to impact default privacy settings, content blockers, and recommendation algorithms for children WITHOUT the liability clause. That means that broader internet censorship is no longer a potential issue for the bill.