Senate Rushes to Pass Flawed Children’s Privacy and Online Safety Bills, Says ITIF

WASHINGTON—Following the Senate’s vote to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, issued the following statement from Senior Policy Manager Ash Johnson:

Congress has been rightfully prioritizing data privacy and children’s online safety this session, finally addressing the patchwork of state legislation that has arisen in the absence of a federal standard. But rushing to pass flawed bills will not effectively protect children and will only make the regulatory landscape worse for businesses and consumers.

KOSA aims to protect minors on social media platforms from content that is harmful to children, but in so doing opens the door to censorship by the FTC, which would have the power to decide what qualifies as harmful, and platforms, which may over-censor content to avoid liability.

Meanwhile, COPPA 2.0 would build on existing children’s privacy legislation, creating additional protections for teens. It includes some provisions that would be overly burdensome to businesses that already comply in good faith with existing children’s privacy laws, such as a ban on targeted advertising to anyone under 17, cutting off revenue for ad-supported online services targeted at teenagers.

This country needs children’s online safety and privacy legislation that strikes the right balance between protecting consumers without infringing on their free speech rights or stifling innovation, which KOSA and COPPA 2.0 fail to do.

Johnson recently released a policy report on children's online safety, which you can read here. She also wrote about the KOSA and COPPA 2.0 bills, which you can find here.

Contact: Nicole Hinojosa, [email protected]