The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) is a comprehensive bill that’s designed to better protect minors from sexual exploitation, violence, and other online dangers.
KOSPA was formed after two separate bills – the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) – were combined into one.
On Tuesday, July 30, members of the United States Senate voted 91-3 in favor of KOSPA. One step closer to becoming a law, the bill now sits with the House of Representatives.
This is significant because the last time Congress passed a law to protect children on the internet was 1998.
How Will KOSA Protect Children?
This part of the bill requires that online platforms:
- Establish a Duty of Care
Platforms would be forced to design features in a way that prevents and mitigates dangers like sexual exploitation.
- Provide Safeguards
By putting easy to change privacy settings in place, minors can restrict who can message them, view their content, and access their personal information.
- Offer Parental Tools
These will give parents an active role in protecting their children and easy ways to report dangers.
- Advertise Safely
This would stop the advertising of narcotic drugs, tobacco products, gambling, or alcohol to minors.
State attorney generals and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would have enforcement powers if the bill becomes a law.
What Online Platforms Are Included?
The bill defines online platforms as “any public-facing website, online service, online application, or mobile application that predominantly provides a community forum for user generated content, such as sharing videos, images, games, audio files, or other content, including a social media service, social network, or virtual reality environment.”
This means social media companies like Facebook and Instagram along with popular gaming websites such as Twitch and Roblox would be forced to comply with KOSA.
How Will Parents Benefit?
Parents will have access to the amount of time their children are spending online and get the ability to set restrictions, change privacy settings, and easily report harm.
COPPA 2.0
This part of the bill will strengthen protections put in place by COPPA, a 1998 law that protects children under the age of 13 by allowing parents to control what information commercial websites and other online services “collect, use, or disclose” about their children, according to the FTC.
For COPPA 2.0, revisions include:
- Extending online protections to minors under 17 years old
- Banning targeted advertising to children and teens
- Creating an “eraser” button for parents and kids to remove personal information
- Establishing a Youth Marketing and Privacy Division at the FTC
(U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation)
What You Can Do
Contact your local representatives and encourage them to support KOSPA! This bill would modernize laws, a necessary step to better protect children in the digital world we live in.
In the 26 years since a law was passed to protect children online, a lot has changed. Social media has become an everyday presence in our lives, and the internet is used by billions around the world daily.
Minors need to be better protected online; KOSPA will ensure that happens. Learn more about the monumental bill here.