[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 121 (Thursday, July 25, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S5507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         KIDS ONLINE SAFETY ACT

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, after months of negotiations, the Kids 
Online Safety Act, KOSA, has been improved, thanks to hard work by 
Commerce Chair Cantwell and Leader Schumer. The changes that I, LGBTQ+ 
advocates, parents, student activists, civil rights groups and others 
have fought for over the last 2 years have made it less likely that the 
bill can be used as a tool for MAGA extremists to wage war on legal and 
essential information to teens. I want to take a moment to thank all of 
the advocates, parents, young people, and concerned citizens that have 
raised their views about KOSA with me, both in support of the bill and 
with concern about its implications.
  Let me be clear, I strongly support elements of this bill, especially 
Senator Markey's Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act, 
which will safeguard the personal information of young people online. 
Provisions regulating addictive design elements used by platforms to 
keep young people hooked are valuable safeguards that will make tech 
products safer. Unfortunately, KOSA's improvements, while constructive, 
remain insufficient. I fear this bill could be used to sue services 
that offer privacy-enhancing technologies like encryption or anonymity 
features that are essential to young people's ability to communicate 
securely and privately without being spied on by predators online. I 
also take seriously concerns voiced by the American Civil Liberties 
Union, Fight for the Future, and LGBTQ+ teens and advocates that a 
future MAGA administration could still use this bill to pressure 
companies to censor gay, trans, and reproductive health information.
  For these reasons, I cannot vote for this legislation. However, if 
this bill is signed into law by the President, I look forward to 
working with my colleagues to conduct rigorous oversight of the FTC to 
ensure that my worst fears about this bill do not come true and that 
kids benefit from a safer internet.
  Whatever happens to this bill, I look forward to working with my 
colleagues on other initiatives, including regulating harmful and 
manipulative platform designs, to tackle the vital topic of kids' 
safety online. I also remain convinced that this effort must go hand-
in-hand with passing a strong baseline privacy law for all Americans.

                          ____________________