The following statement from the Software & Information Industry Association following Senate passage of the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) can be attributed to Paul Lekas, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy.
The digital and real worlds are more interconnected than ever, and with more of our children’s learning and social experiences occurring online, we must take care to ensure the online experience is as safe as possible for our children. As policymakers have grappled with this important issue, they have increasingly encountered the difficulty of shaping solutions that avoid lasting and negative unintended consequences that ultimately make the problem worse. Such is the case with some provisions of the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act that the Senate passed today.
Putting guardrails in place to protect the internet’s most vulnerable users is a worthwhile effort, but this particular legislation would do more harm than good. The duty of care will require companies to aggressively filter content and age gate content putting users’ privacy at risk. Although this bill has advanced in the Senate, we urge lawmakers to work toward fixing the problems in the legislation to ensure a safer online experience for America’s children without the unintended consequences of the current bill.
The bill also includes the Filter Bubble Act which has not received the same attention as the rest of the bill. This bill effectively instructs large companies how to display content to their users instead of allowing the company to customize based on the users’ interests. Instead of allowing companies to respond to what their users want, they will need to respond to the demands of elected officials.
Background
Before final passage, SIIA, along with many other organizations, called on the Senate to address concerns about the age verification, privacy, and content filtering measures contained in KOSA as detailed in this letter. While SIIA understands the importance of protecting our children online, the Senate moved forward on the bill without addressing these specific issues.
More from SIIA on the Kids Online Safety Act can be found here.
