The Looming Danger of the Kids Online Safety Act

August 7, 2024

We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation have been clear: the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) – which purports to protect the well-being of children and teenagers engaging in digital media – is dangerous. Rather than protect us, it threatens our most sacred Constitutional and fundamental human rights, including our rights to freedom of expression, privacy, and access to information.

As Daly Johnson wrote on Woodhull’s Blog over a year ago, KOSA “attempts to regulate too much, ultimately allowing marginalized groups to slip through the cracks.” Through its broad language, KOSA gives legislators an invitation to censor anything they deem harmful. Johnson’s words couldn’t ring more true – and her warnings are necessary to heed now more than ever.

Fast-forward to July 2024, and we were facing KOSA being one (very significant) step forward to becoming law. The Senate passed the bill on a 91-3 vote. Unsurprisingly, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) puts it, it seems that the vast majority of Senators think it’s a good idea “to let politicians and bureaucrats decide what people should read and view online.”

What would happen if KOSA became law? Anna Bonesteel and Evan Greer, who studied the particular adverse effects faced by LGBTQIA+ youth, conclude that KOSA’s regulation of the internet is essentially a green light for censorship. For example, under KOSA, “platforms could be sued for recommending a potentially depression- or anxiety-inducing video to anyone under 18.” Social media companies will “overcompensate and actively suppress posts and groups about gender identity, sexuality, abortion.” Out of fear that content that might only be “appropriate” under KOSA for adult internet users (however those politicians and bureaucrats decide to spin it), age verification is likely to increase as well.

But in a surprising (and relieving) turn of events, on August 1, D.C. insiders reported that the House would not take up KOSA. The risks posed by KOSA aren’t confined to the bill itself; it’s not the only bad internet bill out there. We know that we need to remain vigilant, but a moment of celebration is certainly deserved: pro-censorship laws like KOSA make children, teenagers, all of us, less safe. We welcome the news that the House won’t take up KOSA.