Dear Congress: Stop playing politics and #PassKOSA

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was first introduced two years ago. Since then, it has been revised multiple times, thoroughly vetted, and garnered broad bipartisan support on and off the Hill. KOSA is ready to go. With the vast majority of Senators supporting it and a House version gaining momentum, why is it not yet law? Why are more children dying from the harms rampant on social media platforms while families across America wait for lawmakers to act?

It's a question we at ParentsSOS have been grappling with. The delays no longer make sense, because the truth is simple: Social media companies sell a faulty product that’s been killing kids. It’s well past time for our government to do something about it. KOSA is the answer.

But, of course, because we know KOSA will be effective at forcing Big Tech to change how they do business, because this bill will require that they discontinue the use of dangerous design features and algorithms specifically meant to glue kids to their screen – no matter how lethal the consequences – they’ve been fighting tooth and nail against it. To the tune of $7.64 million in lobbying during the first quarter of 2024 alone, the same three-month period following last January’s senate hearing during which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered condolences to parents who have lost children to social media harms. According to Issue One, the cross-partisan political reform organization based in Washington, D.C., this figure represents a 66 percent increase from what Meta spent during the same quarter one year earlier and is more money than they’ve ever spent in a single quarter since the company started lobbying in 2009.  

Will all this money directed at our lawmakers tip the scale in favor of Big Tech or will the men and women we elected to represent us in D.C. stand up for our children instead? The choice is that stark – and the right call is clear. Our government doesn’t allow car companies to sell cars without seatbelts for children in the back row. Allowing Big Tech to operate with virtually no safeguards for minors, with toxic content in fact targeted specifically at them, is even worse. Enough is enough.

As recently as last month some members of Congress continued to voice concerns about certain provisions of the bill, claiming, for example, that the central “duty of care” would lead to censorship because companies will edit content out of a fear of being sued. Not only does this kind of reasoning show more sympathy for the Zuckerbergs of the world than the parents who have lost their children due to online harms, it is simply unfounded. The “duty of care” only prevents toxic algorithmic recommendations and design choices that send children harmful content they never sought in the first place. The ability of minors to search for content they specifically want and need, including evidence-backed information and clinical resources, is explicitly protected. Non-profits are protected, too.

So, what needs to happen next? The path is pretty straightforward. With 70 co-sponsors in the Senate, the bill will sail through a floor vote there if only Leader Schumer will call one. We urge him to do so without delay. And in the House, now that the bill has passed out of subcommittee, we urge Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers to call for a markup and advance the bill further so the full House can consider it and pass it.

We must get KOSA over the finish line before Congress goes out on August recess and before the likelihood of any new bill becoming law before the November election slips dangerously out of reach. Every day without KOSA enacted into law is another day that lawmakers are allowing Big Tech profits to matter more than children’s lives. But they don’t and they never will. 

So, to our elected leaders: Stop playing politics and start saving lives. Pass KOSA now.