40 state AGs warn House KOSA bill falls short of protecting children online

A bipartisan coalition of 40 state attorneys general on Tuesday sent a letter to lawmakers decrying a weak House version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which they said falls short of protecting minors.

The House bill lacks several components that are included in the Senate bill and allows a federal law to preempt existing tough state laws. It also does not enumerate harms posed by online content to include eating disorders, suicide, compulsive use and other mental health harms or include a duty of care. 

Duties of care require online platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable and specific harms to minors which result from their design features.

The letter comes on the heels of the Monday opening of a major trial pitting the state of New Mexico against Meta. Attorney General Raúl Torrez alleges that Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed to protect children from human trafficking, sexual abuse and online solicitation.

The attorney general also has said that Facebook and Instagram’s designs led to child predator accounts and child sexual abuse materials being recommended to minors.

In their letter, the 40 state attorneys general said they believe that social media platforms pose serious and growing threats to minors.

“Many social media platforms deliberately target minors, fueling a nationwide youth mental health crisis,” the letter said. “These platforms are intentionally designed to be addictive, particularly for underaged users, and generate substantial profits by monetizing minors’ personal data through targeted advertising.” 

“These companies fail to adequately disclose the addictive nature of their products or the well-documented harms associated with excessive social media use.”

Civil libertarians have fought hard against KOSA, saying it censors young people online, violates free speech and prevents LGBTQ+ teens from accessing information.

The Senate has a Republican champion for its version of KOSA in Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who has long spearheaded the legislation and has insisted on a duty of care staying in the bill. There is no such strong bipartisan support for the bill in the House.

The two chambers still need to hammer out what a final bill will look like. KOSA, named the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act at the time, ultimately died in the last Congress after the chambers were unable to agree on language with House leadership saying the tough version that passed the Senate was unworkable.