Senators Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn announced changes to the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) on Saturday, with the support of X (formerly Twitter). These revisions aim to strengthen the bill while ensuring free speech is protected online and preventing the law from being used to suppress expression.
The Senate passed KOSA in July with overwhelming support, but the bill has stalled in the House. With the year-end deadline approaching, its supporters are working to secure its passage soon. X CEO Linda Yaccarino also endorsed the revisions and urged Congress to act on the bill.
KOSA is designed to protect minors from the harmful effects of social media, such as addiction and exposure to dangerous content. It aims to impose a “duty of care” on platform owners to safeguard children’s well-being. However, critics have expressed concerns that it could lead to censorship and other unintended consequences.
The recent changes address these concerns by clarifying the conditions under which the duty of care can be enforced. They also focus specifically on mental health issues, stipulating that conditions like anxiety or depression must be objectively verifiable and tied to compulsive usage, making it harder to apply broadly.
Linda Yaccarino, in a post on X, shared her support for the changes, emphasizing that the revisions protect free speech while ensuring safety for minors. The senators echoed this sentiment in their statement, reassuring the public that the updated language should dispel fears that the bill would be misused for censorship.
Revised Kids Online Safety Act Seeks to Balance Child Protection and Free Speech Amid House Stalemate
Blumenthal and Blackburn thanked Elon Musk and Yaccarino for their involvement, noting that the revisions reflect their commitment to balancing child protection with free speech. They also reiterated their call for Congress to pass KOSA by the end of the year.
The revised version of KOSA comes after extensive revisions since its introduction in February 2022. Despite the bill’s popularity among lawmakers, it has faced strong opposition from advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
These organizations argue that KOSA could harm free expression and lead to unnecessary surveillance of minors. Nevertheless, the bill has gained significant backing, with the majority of Congress supporting its passage.
KOSA’s journey through Congress has been marked by debate over how to protect children online without infringing on individual rights. The latest changes to the bill aim to address concerns about censorship while ensuring that social media platforms are held accountable for protecting young users.
With the end of the year approaching, proponents are pushing to pass the bill, believing that the revisions strike the right balance between safety and free speech.
