Protecting Kids or Sly Censorship?
What You Need to Know About the Push to Pass KOSA
The Rundown↓
KNOW there’s a push in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass KOSA and COPPA 2.0, bills intended to improve safety and privacy for teens on social media.
REALIZE that a majority of lawmakers support the bill, but opponents say it will lead to censorship.
EXPLORE Senator Blumenthal’s advocacy of KOSA and NetChoice’s opposition.
Details↓
A group of senators sent a letter on December 3, 2024 to Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Majority Leader, Steve Scalise (R-LA), urging a vote in the House of Representatives on the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA). KOSPA was passed by the Senate on July 30, 2024 with a bipartisan vote of 91-3.
KOSPA is a package bill with the uniquely drafted KOSA bill and an update to COPPA, a law passed in 1998 that limits online personal data collection of anyone under 13. The original COPPA is the reason most social media companies restrict access to teens under 13. The update, COPPA 2.0, would restrict targeted ads to teens and increase the age for enhanced privacy protections to under 17.
The proposed KOSA law imposes a “duty of care” expectation for social media platforms to increase privacy, limit messaging access to minors, and moderate content related to suicide, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and sexual exploitation. It would also give users the ability to disable addictive attention-driven strategies like algorithmic recommendations and infinite scroll.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who introduced KOSA with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), published an op-ed on Sunday imploring the House to pass the bill. She cited support from Donald Trump Jr. and collaboration with Elon Musk to add language protecting free speech and addressing fears the law would lead to censorship.
Even with new changes, opponents like NetChoice and the Electronic Frontier Foundation view KOSA as “an unconstitutional censorship bill that threatens the online speech and privacy rights of all internet users.”
The current legislative session ends on Friday, so if Speaker Johnson does not schedule a vote, the bill will be pushed into the new year after new members of Congress are sworn in on January 3, 2025.
Commentary↓
This end-of-year push to pass KOSPA comes on the heels of a new law in Australia banning social media for users under 16. The two bills are vastly different approaches, Australia’s prohibition versus the United States’ mitigation.
While Australia’s law requires age verification and does little to address how platforms function, KOSPA addresses social media’s attention-driven strategies without banning it outright. But the biggest hangup for House Speaker Johnson is that the language could open the door for future censorship, as he notes:
You've got to get this one right when you're dealing with the regulation of free speech. You can't go too far and have it be overbroad, but you want to achieve those objectives. So it's essential that we get this issue right.
Johnson’s comments make it seem unlikely there will be a vote before the end of the year. Maybe he’s reserving the vote for updated language and/or generating an early win for the Republican-led House in 2025.
History tells us these reservations and objections aren’t groundless, as safety has long been a cover for control. Since Musk is obviously a champion of free speech, what addition to the bill earned an X endorsement but didn’t alleviate Johnson’s concerns? Read the reference to the duty of care for yourself:
Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow a government entity to enforce subsection (a) based upon the viewpoint of users expressed by or through any speech, expression, or information protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Either way, between this bill and Australia’s law we’re going to see a lost of preemptive changes coming soon to social media platforms. As we noted last week, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some sort of age verification function for users worldwide in 2025 in addition to more customization features in anticipation of KOSPA’s passage.
But what do you think? Do you think the censorship fears are valid or overblown? Should the House of Representatives wait until 2025 to amend the bill to address those concerns?
Postscript↓
I sound like a broken record, but news like this confirms the need for our social media online course. Even if KOSPA passes, there’s still a huge void of resources empowering adults and preparing teens for a lifetime of digital communication. Take advantage of our limited time $99/yr Behind the Curtains subscription deal before the new year!