02/15/2024

The Kids Online Safety Act Secures Enough Votes to Pass the Senate

Big Tech is highly opposed to the legislation

Thursday, after months of negotiations, senators announced that a sprawling bill to expand protections for children online had secured more than 60 backers, clearing a path to passage for what would be the most significant congressional attempt in decades to regulate tech companies.

The Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, first introduced in 2022, would impose sweeping new obligations on an array of digital platforms, including requiring that companies "exercise reasonable care" to prevent their products from endangering kids. The safeguards would extend to their use of design features that could exacerbate depression, sexual exploitation, bullying, harassment and other harms.

The measure would also require that platforms enable their most protective privacy and safety settings by default for younger users and offer parents greater tools to monitor their kids' activity.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.