Ahead of House E&C Hearing, Advocates Emphasize Support for Senate-Passed Kids Online Safety Act 

WASHINGTON, DC – Ahead of today’s House committee hearing, The Tech Oversight Project Executive Director Sacha Haworth issued the following statement:

“The House Republican Caucus, under Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise, is taking up the cause of kids’ online safety in name only. House Republicans are dangling a toxic and toothless Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in front of Congress in the hopes of giving their Big Tech AI benefactors, like David Sacks, a sweetheart deal with a permanent ban on state AI laws. This is a bad, moronic idea that is already facing swift and bipartisan backlash,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project. “House Republicans should stop wasting everyone’s time and take up the Senate’s filibuster-proof version of KOSA that will actually force Big Tech companies like Meta, TikTok, and Google to protect young people by implementing a duty of care.”

Background:

• The Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act, authored by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), has 65+ co-sponsors, contains a duty of care that holds Big Tech accountable for harming children and teens, and received over 90 votes in the Senate last year.
• Survivor parents panned the House version of KOSA for ripping out the duty of care.
• Maurine Molak, a co-founder of ParentsSOS said, “After three years of meeting with legislators to share our families’ stories of loss and our legislative priorities, we are extremely disappointed that this bill doesn’t contain the ‘duty of care’ we asked for in every meeting and that the bill preempts the state laws that so many parents have worked tirelessly to pass. We strongly urge Congress to work together and put KOSA back together again. The Senate version that serves all American families and communities and would prevent further children from dying.”
• Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), author of the Senate’s Kids Online Safety Act, said, “We know without a shadow of a doubt that Meta won’t make its platforms safe because protecting kids cuts into the company’s bottom line. Passing the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act would ensure companies like Meta are held accountable.”
• Michael Kleinman, head of U.S. Policy at the Future of Life Institute, said, “It’s not hard to see why the vast majority of Americans want AI regulation to protect kids and more. The mystery is why some of those in Congress do not.”