Letter to EFF Leadership on KOSA Falsehoods
Cindy Cohn, Executive Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
February 27, 2024
Dear Ms. Cohn,
We write to you as grieving parents with a simple request for the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Please stop spreading lies about the Kids Online Safety Act.
We have paid the ultimate price for unregulated social media; our children have died because of platforms’ deliberate design choices. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat have consistently employed harmful strategies to maximize young people’s engagement – designing products that send our kids down dangerous and deadly rabbit holes of pro-suicide and eating disorder content; enticing them to attempt dangerous challenges; facilitating sextortion schemes; and implementing design features that make children more vulnerable to predation, drug dealers, and cyberbullying.
That is why so many of us advocate for the Kids Online Safety Act. KOSA is a necessary counterbalance to social media platforms’ toxic business model that will create safeguards, transparency and a duty of care, requiring platforms to consider how their deliberate design choices are contributing to serious - and specific - harms for young people, including eating disorders, suicide, sexual exploitation, cyberbullying and social media addiction.
While disagreement on a piece of legislation is valid, EFF’s writings and public comments about KOSA are not reasonable. Instead, they deliberately ignore key pieces of the bill’s text, disregard the scientific evidence of mental health harms, turn a blind eye even to Meta’s own awareness they were harming kids, and distort the truth using misrepresentations and convoluted hypotheticals. All in order to terrify the general public through false accusations that the real intent of KOSA is to censor the web, stifle dissent, persecute marginalized communities, and require a picture ID to even use the Internet.
Given that we are trying to make positive change out of our children’s tragic and preventable deaths by making social media safer for kids, it is deeply offensive that EFF continually lies about the bill’s intent and content. In our own conversations about KOSA with family, friends, journalists, and policymakers, we often hear EFF’s lies parroted back to us. We understand that this is EFF’s tried and true playbook – that attempts to protect people from real, life-changing harm are met, not with reasoned analysis, but by spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. But we ask you to consider the human cost of this scorched earth strategy. It is beyond disrespectful that you are launching a warped campaign celebrating and endorsing social media companies to stop a law that is designed to keep more families from suffering like we have.
Passing KOSA won’t bring our own kids back but it will save other children’s lives. We advocate for KOSA because we care about all kids. So we also find it deeply troubling that EFF, in order to advance its own agenda of protecting Big Tech companies from accountability, is intentionally scaring the very young people on whose behalf it claims to advocate. It is heartbreaking to see children panic about losing access to community and resources when KOSA would do nothing of the sort.
We ask that you immediately stop your campaign and correct the falsehoods that you have already spread about KOSA. We would be happy to meet with you and any of your staff and explain what KOSA would actually do.
Sincerely,
Julianna Arnold, mother of Coco Konar, forever 17
Tawainna Anderson, mother of Nyla Anderson, forever 10
Joanne Bogard, mother of Mason Bogard, forever 15
Kristin Bride, mother of Carson Bride, forever 16
Jennie DeSerio, mother of Mason Edens, forever 16
Maurine Molak, mother of David Molak, forever 16
Christine McComas, mother of Grace McComas, forever 15
Annie McGrath, mother of Griffin McGrath, forever 13
Todd and Mia Minor, parents of Matthew Minor, forever 12
Brian Montgomery, father of Walker Montgomery, forever 16
Amy Neville, mother of Alexander Neville, forever 14
Bridgette Norring, mother Devin Norring, forever 19
Erin Popolo, mother of Emily Murrillo, forever 17
Mary Rodee, mother of Riley Basford, forever 15
Judy Rogg, mother of Erik Robinson, forever 12
Michelle Servi, mother of Jack Servi, forever 16
Deb Schmill, mother of Becca Schmill, forever 18
Avery and Lori Schott, parents of Annalee Schott, forever 18
Jeff Van Lith, father of Ethan Van Lith, forever 13
Sharon Winkler, mother of Alex Peiser, forever 17
FACT SHEET
Below are just some of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s falsehoods about the Kids Online Safety Act. Except where noted, all EFF claims are from its February 15, 2024 blog post, “Don’t Fall for the Latest Changes to the Dangerous Kids Online Safety Act”
EFF claims: “Any young person seeking truthful news or information that could be considered depressing will find it harder to educate themselves and engage in current events and honest discussion.”
In reality: The bill has a rule of construction that says, “Nothing in subsection (a) shall be construed to require a covered platform to prevent or preclude any minor from deliberately and independently searching for, or specifically requesting, content.”
EFF claims: “Young people seeking mental health help and information will be blocked from finding it, because even discussions of suicide, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders will be hidden from them” and, “Teens hoping to combat the problem of addiction—either their own, or that of their friends, families, and neighbors, will not have the resources they need to do so.”
In reality: The bill has a rule of construction that states, “Nothing in subsection (a) shall be construed to require a covered platform to prevent or preclude . . . the covered platform or individuals on the platform from providing resources for the prevention or mitigation of the harms described in subsection (a), including evidence-informed information and clinical resources.
EFF claims: Despite changes to the bill, KOSA “will almost certainly still result in age verification requirements” because platforms will have to determine who is and isn’t a child in order to provide KOSA’s protections. On its action alert, EFF takes this hypothetical even further, claiming, KOSA “will likely lead to age verification, handing more power, and private data, to third-party identity verification companies like Clear or ID.me.”
In reality: The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act is 25 years old and requires platforms to treat users over and under 13 differently. It has not led to widespread age verification or the end of anonymity online. And once again, EFF ignores one of KOSA’s rules of construction: “Nothing in this title, including a determination described in subsection (b), shall be construed to require—(1) the affirmative collection of any personal data with respect to the age of users that a covered platform is not already collecting in the normal course of business; or (2) a covered platform to implement an age gating or age verification functionality.”
EFF claims: “The government should not have the power to decide what topics are ‘safe’ online for young people, and to force services to remove and block access to anything that might be considered unsafe for children.” EFF also claimed KOSA would, “let federal and state officials decide what information can be shared online and how everyone can access lawful speech. It would still require an enormous number of websites, apps, and online platforms to filter and block legal, and important, speech.”
In reality: There is not a single word in KOSA about content takedowns or blocking access. The bill makes abundantly clear that it applies to how sites are designed, not user generated content. Further, the harms enumerated in the duty of care are tied to specific definitions–enforcers do not have free reign to define what is “safe” under KOSA.
EFF claims: Activist youth on either side of the aisle will be siloed, and unable to advocate and connect on platforms.
In reality: There is nothing in the bill that prevents youth from connecting with other youth that share their political interests.
