Senate Commerce Committee Urged to Reject KOSA Over Privacy and Speech Concerns

• The Senate Commerce Committee is reviewing the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which, alongside other proposed legislation like the SCREEN Act and CHATBOT Act, threatens online privacy and free expression.
• Critics argue KOSA incentivizes intrusive age verification and empowers government officials to censor lawful online speech.
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) calls for comprehensive privacy protection that covers all users without compromising security or expression.

Age Verification Risks

• KOSA mandates a "duty of care" for platforms to prevent harm to minors, effectively forcing services to verify the age of their users.
• Implementation requires platforms to collect sensitive data such as government IDs, bank records, or facial analysis.
• These new databases create high-value targets for security breaches, misuse, and government surveillance.

Censorship and Free Speech

• The bill shifts control over content moderation from families to government officials and state attorneys general.
• Liability risks create a strong incentive for platforms to preemptively remove controversial or sensitive content, even if it is lawful.
• Potential impacts include the mass removal of community support groups related to gambling, substance abuse, and mental health, effectively isolating vulnerable young people from recovery resources.
• Platforms may choose to block young people's access to large swaths of the internet entirely to avoid legal liability under the broad "duty of care" provision.