The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill that allows for a wide range of government penalties for online speech, could soon be passed by Congress. If that happens, the access we have to information may be forever changed. KOSA will make state prosecutors and federal bureaucrats the final arbiters of online content moderation in the U.S.
KOSA is fundamentally a censorship bill. Politicians are justifying it by harping on something we all know—that there’s content online that’s inappropriate for kids. But instead of letting tricky questions about what online content is appropriate at what age be decided by parents and families, politicians are stepping in to override us.
say no to state-controlled internet in the U.S.
The U.S. Government Will Ban “Depressing” Content
The heart of the KOSA bill is a “Duty of Care” that the government forces on every website, app, social network, message forum, and video game. (It’s Section 2 in the bill text.) KOSA will compel even the smallest online forums to take action against content that politicians believe will cause minors “anxiety,” “depression,” or encourage substance abuse, among other behaviors.
Of course, almost any content could easily fit into these categories—in particular, truthful news about what’s going on in the world, including wars, gun violence, and climate change. Kids don’t need to fall into a complex wormhole of internet content to get anxious; they could see a newspaper on the breakfast table.
Bad feelings are also not exclusive to internet media. For many decades, newspaper and magazine style and advertising sections have promoted unrealistic or unattainable visions of what we should own, what experiences we should have, and what our bodies should look like.
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