Design It For Us on the Kids Online Safety Act
Design It For Us Co-Chair Zamaan Qureshi issued the following joint statement on the Kids Online Safety Act, which House leadership refused to advance before the end of the year:
“House leadership’s decision to kill KOSA despite the bill’s overwhelming bipartisan support only benefits Big Tech and their lobbyists. It is abhorrent that Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Scalise failed to heed the call of so many young people and parents crying out for online safety protections. Youth advocates and parents poured their hearts into trying to get this bill across the finish line, and it ultimately was not enough to satisfy Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Scalise who chose to side with Big Tech over the safety and wellbeing of my generation.
“We began this fight almost two years ago, and I am immensely proud of our advocates who kept showing up to the Capitol over and over to tell their stories, share their perspectives with lawmakers, and advocate for the next generation. While this is not the outcome we wanted, we will use our anger as fuel for the new year to ensure Big Tech is finally held to account for the suffering they’ve caused and the harm they continue to inflict upon us.
“We thank Senator Blumenthal, Senator Blackburn, Representative Castor, and Representative Bilirakis for their immense leadership in moving a monumental online safety bill as far as they could. While this is the end of the road for KOSA this year, we will continue our work in the next Congress to ensure that we adopt protections for our generation, because the status quo is simply unacceptable.”
In addition to KOSA, Design It For Us has endorsed and worked to pass the bipartisan Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) led by Senators Markey and Cassidy, which House leadership also refused to advance. Design It For Us has long worked toward the passage of kids’ safety legislation, spending time on Capitol Hill meeting with White House officials, congressional members, and their staff to demand urgent action on both KOSA and COPPA 2.0, which led to the bills’ unanimous and bipartisan passage out of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Design It For Us was instrumental in passing the Senate’s package bill that included KOSA and COPPA 2.0, or the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA). The youth-led coalition has testified in the Senate; protested in a hearing with the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X, Snap, and Discord on their failure to protect young people online; and co-hosted a rally advocating for immediate action on kids’ safety legislation. Just last week, Design It For Us co-hosted another rally with parents and advocates to call on House leadership to pass KOSA before the end of the year.