The New U.S. House Version of KOSA Doesn’t Fix Its Biggest Problems

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An amended version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) that is being considered this week in the U.S. House is still a dangerous online censorship bill that contains many of the same fundamental problems of a similar version the Senate passed in July. The changes to the House bill do not alter that KOSA will coerce the largest social media platforms into blocking or filtering a variety of entirely legal content, and subject a large portion of users to privacy-invasive age verification. They do bring KOSA closer to becoming law, and put us one step closer to giving government officials dangerous and unconstitutional power over what types of content can be shared and read online. 

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Reframing the Duty of Care Does Not Change Its Dangerous Outcomes

For years now, digital rights groups, LGBTQ+ organizations, and many others have been critical of KOSA’s “duty of care.” While the language has been modified slightly, this version of KOSA still creates a duty of care and negligence standard of liability that will allow the Federal Trade Commission to sue apps and websites that don’t take measures to “prevent and mitigate” various harms to minors that are vague enough to chill a significant amount of protected speech.  

The biggest shift to the duty of care is in the description of the harms that platforms must prevent and mitigate. Among other harms, the previous version of KOSA included anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and suicidal behaviors, “consistent with evidence-informed medical information.” The new version drops this section and replaces it with the “promotion of

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