1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to oppose the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). While I share concerns about protecting young people online, this legislation will not make children safer. Instead, it will enable censorship and put vulnerable youth at greater risk. KOSA's fundamental problem is that it allows the government to pressure social media platforms to remove content deemed "inappropriate" for minors. There is no consensus on what constitutes inappropriate content, and we are already seeing attacks on young people's access to gender-affirming healthcare, sex education, birth control, and abortion information. This bill would subject online communities and resources that LGBTQ+ and trans youth depend on to censorship. Even the revised version of KOSA remains deeply flawed. The duty of care still covers content-specific aspects of recommendation systems, with personalized recommendations explicitly listed as a covered design feature. This means the Federal Trade Commission could pressure platforms into automated filtering of important but controversial topics like LGBTQ issues and abortion by claiming that algorithmically recommending such content causes mental health outcomes like anxiety and depression. Many states have already passed bans on inclusive books and gender-affirming healthcare using exactly this rhetoric. Existing content filtering systems already disproportionately impact marginalized creators, resulting in discrimination and censorship. When SESTA/FOSTA passed, platforms responded with aggressive filtering that suppressed important, sometimes lifesaving, content. KOSA will likely produce the same result. Additionally, KOSA would expand online surveillance through invasive age verification and parental monitoring tools. These measures pose serious safety risks for young people trying to escape domestic violence and abuse. Dozens of LGBTQ+ and civil rights organizations oppose KOSA because it endangers the most vulnerable young people. I urge you to reject this legislation and instead support a comprehensive federal data privacy law that protects all internet users without enabling censorship. Trans youth and human rights should not be collateral damage.