House Republican leadership announced Thursday morning that they do not plan to take up the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which passed in the Senate 91-3 earlier this week. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, is one of 72 co-sponsors on the bill, with the primary sponsor of SB 1409 being Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT. 

“We’ve heard concerns across our Conference and the Senate bill cannot be brought up in its current form,” said a House GOP leadership aide. 

“Our kids deserve to be safe when they go online, and parents must have access to the tools and resources to protect their children from online harm,” said Sen. Tillis in a press release. “This commonsense legislation protects our children from harm online by ensuring social media companies promote a safe and transparent environment. I’m glad the Senate came together to pass this bipartisan legislation.”

The bill seeks to force social media platforms are putting the well-being of children first, requiring social media platforms provide minors with options to protect their information, to turn off addictive product features, or the ability to opt out of algorithmic recommendations. The most stringent settings would selected by default under the proposal.

The bill outlines what “default settings for minors” would look like.

“A covered platform shall provide that, in the case of a user that the platform knows or reasonably should know is a minor, the default setting for any safeguard…shall be the option available on the platform that provides the most protective level of control that is provided by the platform over privacy and safety for that user,” reads the legislation.

Covered platforms would be “a social media service, social network, online video game (including educational games), messaging application, video streaming service, or an online platform that connects to the internet that is used or is reasonably likely to be used, by a minor.” 

Under the proposal, new controls were to be given to parents to identify harmful behaviors and support their children. Bill authors say it places responsibility on these media platforms to “prevent and mitigate” damage to minors, including “promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and unlawful products for minors (i.e., gambling and alcohol).”

It would also require platforms to conduct an annual independent audit assessing risks to minors, compliance with legislation, and whether the platform has taken “adequate steps” to prevent harm, as well as establish a “Kids Online Safety Council” to provide advice on matters related to this Act. 

“Congress last enacted major legislation to address the collection of personal information on children by online platforms in 1998,” according to a report by Roll Call. “Efforts to enact a federal data privacy law have stalled in Congress. The kids’ online safety bills gained momentum after whistleblowers from Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms Inc., testified before Congress that the company had ignored internal warnings about the dangers children face online. Parents whose kids were harmed by online content pushed lawmakers to enact legislation drawing boundaries on tech platforms.” 

While some consider the bill timely in light of concerns recently highlighted by experts, while others caution against government overreach in the name of safety.

“The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) sponsors are likely well-intentioned, and as a parent, I am grateful when others express concern for the safety of American children,” Brooke Medina, VP of Communications at the John Locke Foundation told the Carolina Journal. “However, this bill’s name is a misnomer and would empower bureaucrats, such as those at the Federal Trade Commission, to censor Americans in the name of ‘safety,’ creating speech policies that could change every time the political winds blow a new direction.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Senate bill would empower the Federal Trade Commission and 50 state Attorneys General to serve in “loco parentis” and police the platforms.

“KOSA is not statecraft, it is stagecraft, and would create a pathway for significant government overreach,” continued Medina. “Let’s empower parents with the tools they need to keep their kids safe online and keep Washington bureaucrats out of our homes and our children’s devices.”