A bipartisan group of senators recently unveiled new language for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill designed to require covered platforms to assume a duty of care to protect children from online harms. In a new insight, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling examines these changes and considers how they fail to address the bill’s key problems.

Westling concludes:

KOSA’s new language, drafted in an attempt to resolve concerns about free speech and privacy online, is not likely to address these concerns with any degree of precision. The legislation would still leave covered platforms with an overly broad duty of care that would have a chilling effect on free speech. It would also present significant privacy concerns for minors who use these services, and they may be required to submit sensitive information for age verification. What’s more, as currently drafted, inconsistent enforcement by the FTC and state AGs could still lead to drastically different standards depending on the jurisdiction, making it extremely difficult for platforms to maintain a consistent definition of online harm.

Read the analysis