Me, thinking to myself last week, “Omg! KOSPA passed the Senate. That’s a HUGE internet safety legislation update…one that I definitely have to share with Ask Trish readers.”
Hi there, and welcome back to another week of Ask Trish! I hope you’re all well and enjoying a wonderful start to August. (If you gasped at the realization that it was August on August 1st…you’re not alone. We’ve got just 5 months left in 2024, folks!)
This week, I have some pretty monumental internet policy news to share with y’all: as some of you may have heard, on Tuesday, July 30th, the US Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act, or KOSPA. As we’ll discuss, KOSPA is a proposed internet safety law that would aim to protect kids online in a way that no other law ever has. KOSPA now heads to the House, where it’ll likely see fierce debate (more on this below). But for those of you who have been yearning for Congress to take action on digital safety – and indeed, there’s been a robust youth constituency, a growing coalition of young people, fighting for change for many years now – this is a huge moment. And it’s certainly worth digging into. In that vein, in this week’s post, i) I’ll share a bit about KOSPA, and what the legislation aims to do, ii) offer a brief history of KOSPA, and how it got to this moment, and iii) talk about the path ahead for the bill. Given that I aim to write short, punchy blog posts, this will, by definition, be a brief overview and only that…but I hope it’s a helpful starting point for those of you wanting to learn a bit more about KOSPA (for those you want to learn even more, using this post as a launching pad for further research!).
Sound like a plan? Let’s get into it:
First and foremost, what is KOSPA? KOSPA is an online safety bill that, if passed by the US House, would become the first substantive internet safety legislation passed by Congress since 1998. (Yes, it’s been that long…#yikes) As its slightly awkward name indicates, KOSPA is actually a combination of what were initially two separately proposed bills: the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Child Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0 (COPPA 2.0). The US Congress passed the first COPPA back in 1998 (that was that last substantive internet legislation I was referring to!), but had not, up until this point, attempted to revise or modernize it. As part of KOSPA, COPPA 2.0 does just that; among its provisions are “bans on targeted advertising and nonconsensual data collection of minors 13-16.” KOSA goes even further – among other things, it gives users the ability to opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations – which often increase engagement at the cost of well-being; requires more transparency from platforms in identifying and addressing harms to minors; “raises requirements for privacy-by-default standards”; and gives parents more meaningful controls of their children’s social media use. Advocates, including youth, have rallied for both KOSA and COPPA 2.0 for years now, citing the fact that as much as social media use can benefit young people, it comes with risks and mental health harms, too, harms that are concerning enough that U.S. Surgeon General has argued that social media platforms ought to come with a surgeon general’s warning label.
On the 30th, the US Senate passed KOSPA 91 votes to 3 – a resounding success for KOSPA advocates. But as referenced, the movement to make KOSPA a law started years ago, when success seemed unlikely. It was at that time that, in the wake of disclosures made by Frances Haugen about the safety (or lack thereof) of social media platforms like Facebook, a coalition of youth, parents, advocacy groups, and experts came together (to be transparent, I should disclose that I was one of them!) to devise what they believed would be a powerful measure to protect the safety of children on the internet: the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA. Thanks to their constant advocacy, they found allies in the U.S. Senate, particularly Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who introduced the legislation in May of 2023. But from there, KOSA was iterated on and refined repeatedly in response to critiques and feedback from various other groups/communities. For instance, some worried that the legislation would be weaponized by state Attorney Generals to prevent access to certain types of content, whether anti-abortion content (for liberal Attorney Generals) or anti-LGBTQIA+ content (for conservative Attorney Generals). In response, advocates updated the bill such that the power to enforce prevention of or define harms to minors no longer resided with Attorney Generals. (Indeed, it’s important to note that major LGBTQ+ groups have since dropped any opposition to KOSA.) All that’s to say: there were edits…then more edits…and then more edits before a final version was ultimately merged with COPPA 2.0 by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
So what’s ahead for KOSPA? Well, next, it’s headed to the House, where it will likely face a lot of contention. Why? Free speech advocates and tech companies argue that the bill violates the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects a right to free speech. Indeed, tech companies have successfully blocked a number of state-level child internet safety laws by arguing that regulation of social media companies equates to infringement on those companies’ right to free speech. Free speech groups like the American Civil Liberties Union agree, and no doubt, they are not going to go down without a fight. The fate of KOSPA, then, remains uncertain. But KOSPA advocates have arguments of their own: indeed, they argue that the bill actually purposely avoids questions of what is “good” and “bad” speech and instead focuses on product features/product design. For them, this is about bringing consumer safety protections to social media. Whether that argument will win out remains to be seen.
All that aside, one thing’s for sure: the internet safety legislation movement marked an incredible milestone last Tuesday. And for that, we ought to celebrate.
Hopefully, that gave you a good overview of KOSPA, from its origins to the present day. As discussed, there’s a lot ahead for this bill, so keep your eyes peeled for news…and, as you’re reading that news, do let me know if you have any other KOSPA-related questions. Or, really, any internet-related questions at all on your mind. That’s right: whatever you’re wondering about, I’d love to hear from you. Please go ahead and share your thoughts here. Thank you in advance for contributing!
Have a great week,
Trish