Supporters of the legislation are outwardly optimistic about advancing it before the end of the year, hoping momentum from the Senate passage will prove the House resistance to be a speed bump rather than a brick wall.
But the path forward is murky, my colleague Emily Brooks reported.
A House leadership aide told The Hill that concerns from across the House GOP about the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) suggest it “cannot be brought in its current form.”
“It could lead to censorship of conservative speech, such as pro-life views, is almost certainly unconstitutional and grants sweeping new authority to unelected bureaucrats at the FTC,” the leadership aide said, referring to the Federal Trade Commission.
The legislation passed the Senate 91-3 last month as part of a package that also included provisions, such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Action Act (COPPA 2.0).
The bill, which would create regulations to govern the kinds of features tech and social media companies could offer to minors online, is the result of years of advocacy and growing public awareness around the potential addictiveness of social media and its effects on youth mental health.
Despite the resistance in the House, KOSA advocates are staying optimistic. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the leaders of the Senate legislation, said they “are confident that the Kids Online Safety Act will be signed into law this year.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has previously talked favorably about the need to address children’s safety online, giving hope to KOSA supporters.
“Obviously, we need to protect children with regard to online activity,” Johnson told CNBC last month. “The internet is the wild, wild west, and some of these reforms are overdue.”
But even though he suspected it would have “a lot of support,” Johnson said the House would “be looking at the exact details of the legislation.”
And with just 13 voting days scheduled in the House in September before lawmakers head for another break before the election, there is a time crunch.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
