we talked a lot decoder About the various attempts to regulate the Internet in the United States, and how they run into the very simple fact that almost everything on the Internet is speech, and the First Amendment prohibits most regulation of speech in this country. Literally, it says, “Congress shall make no laws…” That’s why we don’t have any laws.
But a major online speech regulation is currently making its way through Congress and is likely to become law. It’s called KOSPA: The Children’s Online Safety and Privacy Act, and it won overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate late last month. You may have heard of KOSPA’s predecessor, KOSA (Children’s Online Safety Act), which was bundled with another bill called COPPA 2.0 (Children and Youth Online Privacy Protection Act). This is KOSPA The origin of.
Broadly speaking, KOSPA should address two big issues: better protecting minors’ online privacy and making technology platforms more accountable for what these minors see and do.
COPPA 2.0 is basically a specification upgrade – the first COPPA passed in 1998, making it impossible for websites and social media apps to knowingly allow users under the age of 13 to use the platform without parental consent. Of course, that didn’t stop kids from using the stuff, and since then there has been a lot of research and experience with kids online, so COPPA 2.0 raised the age limit to under 17 and banned showing it to minors Targeted advertising and more. This feels relatively simple.
The second part, the KOSA part, has been controversial for some time, and even as the bill gains momentum, controversy remains. KOSA creates a so-called “duty of care” for platforms such as Meta, Google, TikTok and others, effectively making them liable for showing harmful content to children. This is a speech statute through and through, like all speech statutes, which means KOSPA must overcome the First Amendment.
KOSPA certainly has its opponents making this argument. But there is also a strong argument that the government’s interest in protecting children is enough to overcome this problem, and that the political power of parents worried about the impact of the Internet will push KOSPA through.
So, there’s a lot to talk about. To break it all up, I invited edge Senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner has been covering these bills for months, and she explains what’s happening, what they actually do, and the path forward for this legislation.
