Congress is moving quickly to revive the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which passed the US Senate in August, by attaching the controversial bill to the year-end Continuing Resolution by the House of Representatives. Revisions have been made to KOSA, now championed by X CEO Linda Yaccarino, and Don Trump Jr.
Yaël Ossowski, Deputy Director of the Consumer Choice Center, reacted to the renewed push to pass KOSA, saying, “At the same time Republicans and Democrats are coming together in support of Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative, they’re slyly advancing KOSA which would massively expand online regulation power and necessitate more bureaucracy. In the end, kids still get no added online safety, and adults lose their privacy.”
The inclusion of the Kids Online Safety Act in the Continuing Resolution (CR) comes as Congress faces a looming deadline to avoid a government shutdown. This prompted Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) to criticize KOSA’s new iteration and demand that it not be tacked onto larger legislation such as defense and government spending.
The Consumer Choice Center opposes the most current iteration of KOSA and the mechanism its sponsors aim to use to pass the bill. Stephen Kent, Media Director of the Consumer Choice Center, responded, “A bill with such large implications for free speech and the First Amendment should not be rolled into a CR with government spending and defense. Members of Congress must be able to vote their conscience and represent their constituents without being strongarmed into voting for KOSA to keep the government open.”
The Consumer Choice Center urges Congress to remove KOSA from the Continuing Resolution and reintroduce it as a standalone bill for proper debate. Public trust in government depends on lawmakers crafting policies that are transparent and evidence-based. Consumers of online platforms and services deserve better than what KOSA proposes.
Yaël Ossowski concluded, “We remain concerned about how KOSA still grants the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a blank check on rulemaking authority, allowing them to create content moderation guidance while giving plaintiff lawyers an avenue to sue most tech companies out of existence. There’s also nothing sufficient in KOSA to guard online privacy, retention of data, and provide liability for breaches of consumer’s personal information.”
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The Consumer Choice Center is an independent, nonpartisan consumer advocacy group championing the benefits of freedom of choice, innovation, and abundance in everyday life for consumers in over 100 countries. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Washington, Brussels, Ottawa, Brasilia, London, and Geneva. Find out more at www.consumerchoicecenter.org