After passing the In the Senate, almost unanimously last week, the future of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) seems uncertain. Congress is now on a six-week recess, and a report from Punchbowl News indicates that House Republican leaders may not prioritize bringing the bill up for a vote when lawmakers return.
In response to Punchbowl’s reporting, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released a statement saying, “Just a week ago, President Johnson said he would like to see KOSA completed. I hope that hasn’t changed. Leave KOSA and [the Children and Teens’ Online Protection Act] collecting dust in the House would be a terrible mistake and a punch in the gut – a punch in the gut to those brave, wonderful parents who have worked so hard to get to this point. The bill also received support from Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
But the bill has created a massive divide within the digital rights and technology accountability community. If passed, the legislation would require online platforms to block users under 18 from viewing certain types of content that the government considers harmful.
Supporters of the measure, which included the Tech Oversight Project, a nonprofit focused on technology accountability through antitrust legislation, viewed the bill as a significant step toward holding technology companies accountable for how their products impact children.
“Too many young people, parents and families have suffered the disastrous consequences of the greed of social media companies,” Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, said in a statement in June. “The accountability that KOSA would provide to these families is long overdue. »
Others, like the digital rights nonprofit Center for Technology and Democracy, said that if passed, the law could be used to prevent young users from accessing critical information on topics such as sexual health and LGBTQ+ issues. That means some organizations that regularly lobby for accountability from Silicon Valley have found themselves siding with tech companies and their lobbyists in an attempt to defeat the bill.
“KOSA is not ready for a floor vote,” Aliya Bhatia, a policy analyst with the Center for Technology and Democracy’s Free Speech Project, said in a statement in July. “In its current form, KOSA can still be misused to target marginalized communities and politically sensitive information. »
