The online child safety law that has been the highlight of the recent Senate hearing on mainstream social media platforms is now receiving backlash from the people it claims to protect.
Younger generations, particularly Gen Z's, have openly expressed opposition to the proposed Kids Online Safety Act due to fears of restricting their freedom of speech online.
Clips and footage of the hearing are going viral on social media among young users, many of whom will be impacted by the proposed law.
don’t get it twisted KOSA absolutely 100% will censor what we can speak about on the internet, limiting our “free speech” or what’s left of it, and will lead to more tracking of what we do and say online so https://t.co/D56Bc8mKPe
— ♀️ (@fatfabfeminist) February 1, 2024
Many are criticizing the Big Techs such as Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter), and Microsoft that actively endorsed the bill amid the US government's inquiry.
What is So Bad About KOSA?
Even before the bill was brought up in the Senate Committee hearing, the controversial bill has been under heavy scrutiny from online watchdogs and human rights groups since it was first proposed in 2022.
One of the main concerns detailed was how any state attorney general can easily plead for content to get taken down if it is deemed a post to be "harmful" content.
Under the KOSA bill, social media companies can get sued for allowing harmful content on their platforms. The problem is that the law did not specify which harmful content it pertains to.
Experts have warned that the law can be used and will be used for political and religious motivations to stifle content in support of the LGBTQIA+ community, the Palestinians, and criticisms.
Meta, Discord, and TikTok have already denied their support to the KOSA as they cite various concerns on its provisions and prefer the current safety standards.
Child Abuse, Online Harassment Remains a Problem in the Internet
Calls for immediate implementation of KOSA have been surging as longstanding issues of child safety surfaced recently.
Among those were court documents for Meta being "historically reluctant" of complying to regulations regarding the safety of its underage users on Facebook and Instagram.
The topic of sexual harassment got even more prominent after AI-generated explicit images of singer Taylor Swift went viral on X.
It is worth noting that a similar child protection system on the internet has already been active since 1998 with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
