Design It For Us Applauds Senate Passage of KOSA and COPPA 2.0
Following today’s Senate passage of the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), a package bill that includes the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children and Teen Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), Design It For Us co-chairs Zamaan Qureshi and Arielle Geismar issued the following statements:
“This marks a monumental milestone as the Senate has overwhelmingly passed legislation that stands up to Big Tech and tells platforms to design their products with us in mind,” said Zamaan Qureshi. “This is a significant moment for many of my peers and me as Congress takes a major step to passing legislation that would protect our generation online for the first time in 26 years. I am so proud of the work that our coalition of youth activists has done to get the KOSA and COPPA 2.0 through the U.S. Senate.”
Qureshi continued, “We have met with dozens of Senators and their staff and have spent countless hours telling our stories and urging Congress to act. Now it is up to the House of Representatives, Speaker Johnson, and Leader Jeffries to deliver for young people, bring KOSA and COPPA 2.0 to a vote, and send it to the president’s desk. I want to thank Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn for their undying support for the young people who have come forward on countless occasions to tell their stories in support of the bill.”
“The bipartisan passage of KOSA and COPPA 2.0 signals a major shift following decades-long inaction by Congress to pass meaningful tech accountability legislation, sending a message to Big Tech that they can no longer evade responsibility for protecting our safety and privacy,” said Arielle Geismar. “Design It For Us is proud to have led a movement of young people who spent time in the halls of Congress, given constant feedback to edit and improve these bills, and organized to maintain pressure on our elected leaders to push for immediate congressional action.”
Geismar continued, “We thank the offices of Senators Blumenthal, Blackburn, and Markey for their steadfast support and leadership, and Senator Schumer for prioritizing the passage of this bill. While my generation has suffered from Big Tech’s profit-driven algorithms and complete disregard for our privacy, today’s successful vote in favor of kids online safety and privacy gives us hope that there are leaders willing to fight alongside us to make sure future generations will be shielded from the harms of social media and be given the agency to seek a better, more positive online experience. We will now take our fight to the House of Representatives to ensure safety online.”
Design It For Us first started as a campaign effort to pass the California Age-Appropriate Design Code in 2022 and has since become a youth-led coalition advocating for safer social media and online platforms for kids, teens, and young adults. The coalition has long endorsed and worked toward the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), which constitute KOSPA.
Last summer, Design It For Us spent a week in Washington, D.C. meeting with White House officials, congressional members, and their staff to demand urgent action on kids’ safety legislation, including KOSA and COPPA 2.0, which led to the bills’ unanimous and bipartisan passage out of the Senate Commerce Committee. Design It For Us protested in the Senate Judiciary 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.
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About Design It For Us
Design It For Us is a youth-led coalition advocating for policy for safer social media and online platforms for kids, teens, and young adults. The youth-led coalition is led by two Co-Chairs and a Core Team of young people between the age of 18 and 26. The coalition is supported by an array of youth activists, youth-led organizations, and advisors.