NetChoice Asks Senate to Reject Bills That Would Harm Children’s Privacy

WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will consider 2 bills. Titled the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), these proposals are neither safe nor secure approaches to protect American children from online threats. 

Both KOSA and COPPA 2.0 will in practice require online services and social media companies to collect massive amounts of data on kids, increasing opportunities for their most private information to be stolen by bad actors and predators. KOSA will also create an oversight board of DC insiders and bureaucrats to decide what’s best for your children, rather than parents and guardians having that right and authority over their families.

Instead of passing KOSA and COPPA 2.0, NetChoice recommends several alternatives to Congress to help keep kids safe online:

1. Giving law enforcement the resources they need to prosecute reported CSAM violations from online services, like the Invest in Child Safety Act.
2. Requiring digital safety and security education in the classroom, following the example of Florida and Virginia. 
3. Negotiating and passing a federal data privacy law, which both preempts the complex patchwork of state laws and respects the many beneficial applications of data that Americans enjoy daily. 
4. Helping educate parents on the many digital tools that already exist and are available to them right now to help protect their children online.

“If passed, KOSA and COPPA 2.0 will create massive privacy and security problems for American families. Alternatively, NetChoice strongly recommends these meaningful, constitutional solutions that will empower law enforcement to stop child predators and equip Americans of all ages to develop healthy online habits in the Digital Age,” said NetChoice Vice President & General Counsel Carl Szabo.

Szabo continued: “When it comes to determining the best way to help kids and teens use the internet, parents and guardians should be making those decisions, not the government. Rather than violating free speech rights and handing parenting over to bureaucrats, we should empower law enforcement with the resources necessary to do its job to arrest and convict bad actors committing online crimes against children.”

Please contact Krista Chavez at press@netchoice.org with inquiries.