Whatever happened to the Kids Online Safety Act?
- The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was set to be a major piece of legislation in 2024, aiming to regulate kids’ online safety and content on social media.
- The bill gained momentum in the Senate, with a virtually unanimous vote, but was unexpectedly dropped by House Republican leadership due to concerns about conservative content removal.
- Despite its demise, advocates continue to push for new child safety legislation and regulations to address AI-created nude images of minors, citing urgency and concern for marginalized kids’ safety.
- Civil liberties groups now warn that KOSA could give the Trump administration new tools to suppress speech they disagree with, exacerbating concerns about free expression and censorship.
- With nearly four months into 2025, KOSA remains reintroduced in Congress, leaving its future uncertain as lawmakers debate the feasibility of enforcing new regulations under a weakened regulatory framework.
2024 was shaping up to be the year Congress regulated how kids engage with social media, particularly through one bill, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). A debate about its risks to free expression still raged, but the voices of the bill’s advocates seemed to ring loudest in senators’ ears. The momentum was there. The Senate vote was virtually unanimous. Then, unexpectedly, House Republican leadership – worried KOSA would make Silicon Valley giants remove more conservative content – let it fade away.
Now, after a hundred chaotic days of the Trump administration, the once-rational bet of new child safety legislation is looking shakier. Parent and youth advocates continue to hammer the urgency of passing bills like KOSA, as well as new regulations to address the proliferation of AI-created nude images of minors. But civil liberties groups – which already feared these bills put marginalized kids at risk – now warn they could give Trump new weapons to wield against speech they disagree with. Meanwhile, some lawmakers wonder if the administration’s dramatically weakened regulators can enforce the rules at all.
Nearly four months into 2025, KOSA has yet to be reintroduced in Congress …
Read the full story at The Verge.