One of the biggest flashpoints for internet regulation, the Kids Online Safety Act, is poised for a revival — but possibly without the central feature that’s kept people fighting over it for the past three years.
Since 2022, supporters of KOSA have backed its plan to require web platforms to protect kids from a variety of online harms, imposing what’s known as a duty of care. That faction includes parents whose children have died after experiencing cyberbullying, becoming victims of sextortion, or obtaining illegal drugs online. They believe the prospect of new legal liability could make companies change their policies to prevent more tragedies — even as opponents raised concerns that it will lead platforms to over-censor content, including LGBTQ resources. KOSA died in the House after passing with overwhelming approval in the Senate last year — and it was reintroduced in the Senate in May, teeing up another fight.
Now, those parents are hearing — from congressional staff and civil society groups close to the process — that KOSA could return to the House of Representatives with the duty of care provision removed. The rumored changes could amount to KOSA’s core provision going out with a whimper, even as lawmakers are rumored to be planning a package of several kids safety bills soon after the government reopens from the shutdown.
Meanwhile, for some longtime opponents of KOSA, removing the duty of care could resolve a central concern they have with the bill: that it could incentivize social media companies to remove helpful and potentially lifesaving resources for kids from marginalized communities. But the overall kids safety package could make that a Pyrrhic victory, placing the gutted KOSA alongside bills with potentially similarly troubling implications for online speech.
“When it comes to tech policy, you have to think about how the companies will act, not just what the laws say”
KOSA’s duty of care wouldn’t formally require platforms to take down legal speech or prevent kids from searching out any kind of content, but it would require services to mitigate certain harms on their platforms, including health issues like eating disorders and depression. That’s long concerned civil liberties groups. Fight for the Future’s Sarah Philips says that rather than taking the risk that a potentially harmful post could slip through the cracks onto a minor’s algorithmic feed, the simplest thing for a platform to do is to remove that content. Fight for the Future was particularly concerned with how KOSA could potentially impact resources for LGBTQ youth, at a time when gender-affirming healthcare access has been increasingly politicized — though several prominent LGBTQ advocacy groups withdrew their opposition to KOSA after earlier revisions. “When it comes to tech policy, you have to think about how the companies will act, not just what the laws say,” Philips says.
Without the duty of care, KOSA would still introduce new standards, like a requirement that kids accounts default to the highest level of protection settings available, and limit features that aim to keep users on as long as possible, like infinite scroll. Philips says these other aspects of the bill are things Fight for the Future could likely get behind, though so far all of the energy around the bill has centered on the duty of care. For supporters and opponents alike, the other requirements alone represent a far more modest change than KOSA’s sponsors envisioned.
The original Senate sponsors of KOSA insist the bill needs the duty of care provision. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) says in a statement, “There is no appetite for watering the bill down,” and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says, “Establishing a ‘duty of care’ through the Kids Online Safety Act is essential to protecting our kids and giving parents peace of mind.”
“There is no appetite for watering the bill down”
But House Republicans, who were behind the bill’s failure last year, could threaten to let KOSA fizzle again unless the duty of care is removed or significantly altered. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) did not put KOSA to a floor vote last year after overwhelming Senate approval. Both worried about potential speech issues, with Johnson calling it “very problematic” and Scalise warning it “will empower dangerous people.” The message that KOSA could enable censorship “is resonating with a large swath of people,” Philips says. “And right now, I think Democrats are particularly failing in listening to what those concerns are, especially in this political moment where we’re seeing so much censorship and so much alignment with Big Tech with this administration.”
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