Oppose KOSA — It Endangers the Kids It Claims to Protect

Vote no on the Kids Online Safety Act. Despite its name, KOSA would make life more dangerous for the most vulnerable young people — particularly LGBTQ+ and trans youth who rely on online communities as lifelines. The bill's "duty of care" provision is not content neutral, which means the FTC could pressure platforms to filter out content on LGBTQ+ issues and abortion by claiming that algorithmically recommending such content "causes" anxiety or depression. That is the same rhetorical playbook already used to ban inclusive books and block gender-affirming healthcare across multiple states. The revised version of KOSA narrows some of the worst provisions, but the core problem remains. Personalized recommendation systems are still explicitly covered under the duty of care, and we've seen what happens when platforms face this kind of legal pressure — after SESTA/FOSTA, they responded with aggressive, indiscriminate filtering that disproportionately silenced marginalized creators. KOSA would repeat that harm at scale. Expanded age verification and parental monitoring tools also put young people fleeing abuse at greater risk. Dozens of LGBTQ+ and civil rights organizations oppose this bill for exactly these reasons. If the goal is protecting kids from Big Tech, pass a strong federal data privacy law — one that doesn't treat trans youth and their communities as acceptable collateral damage.