1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

As your constituent, I urge you to reject and publicly oppose the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), S. 1748, reintroduced in the Senate. This bill gives government officials—including future administrations and state attorneys general—the power to push websites and apps to remove or block online speech. That includes lawful content on topics like health, education, and peer support—used by people of all ages. KOSA doesn’t protect young people. It creates vague legal standards that will pressure websites and apps to take down speech and restrict access just to avoid being sued. That is why 200 human rights and privacy organizations have spoken about their opposition to KOSA. Even more have come out lately in opposition to similar measures like the one dubbed “chat control” in the EU and the now infamous OSA. The UK’s bill OSA has been internationally denounced as a censorship and surveillance tool. Rightly so, as the age verification it requires to access “mature content” - and on that subject, this “mature” content is often mislabeled by an ai detection system that is stripped of human oversight by corporations to save cash, or chosen as mature and shadowbanned / locked behind the ID wall due to a political bias from the corporation itself - forces people to doxx themselves (and in many cases pay the increased cost that age verification put onto smaller websites) in order to access everything from classical art to addiction support communities. Fear of political and personal retaliation has crippled the UK’s ability to participate in and view discussion on important social issues online, as the UK shows clear willingness to send police to your doorstep if you say something current politicians decide is hateful. It is almost guaranteed the system OSA puts into place will be abused to protect politicans’ power. Not a matter of if, but when, and how many people will be arrested. The world has watched the fallout from OSA with horror. Supporting KOSA would be political suicide for our nation and a sinister message to vulnerable minors that they are nothing more than a political tool with which to coerce consent for surveillance and aptly nicknamed “nanny state” policies. Again THE ENTIRETY OF EUROPE’S EXPERTS are tuning in to this issue. On the international stage, a majority of nonpartisan professionals have confirmed that there are no quantifiable benefits to age verification legislation - only an active threat to democratic free speech principles. In fact they warn it will drive minors into less regulated, more unsafe spaces online, or even to commit what may account to ID fraud in order to access online community and political perspectives. This bill is dangerous. It will chill speech, shrink access to information, and open the floodgates to political abuse. Do not be fooled: this bills sacrifices vulnerable children, not saves them. Please take a stand against this kind of government overreach and publicly oppose KOSA.