New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and Coalition of 30 States Urge Congress to Pass Kids Online Safety Act

Led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and 30 states today called upon Congressional leadership to pass the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (“KOSA”), crucial legislation that protects children from online harm, before the end of the year. In a letter, the coalition emphasized the urgent need to address the growing crisis of youth mental health linked to social media use, with studies showing minors spend more than five hours daily online.

“Every day that Congress delays is another day children are exposed to harmful content that threatens their mental health and wellbeing,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “We cannot allow profits to come before the safety of our kids. It’s time for Congress to act and give families the tools they need to protect their children online.”

“Lobbyists for Big Tech are working overtime to kill this legislation because they know it will hold them accountable,” Torrez added. “According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Meta and Google alone have spent nearly $90 million over the past three years lobbying on a range of issues, including this bill, to protect their profits. We must rise up against these efforts and demand action—for the sake of our kids and their futures.”

The attorneys general highlighted several key provisions of KOSA that would enhance online protections for minors:

• Mandatory default safety settings: Requiring platforms to automatically enable their strongest safety protections for minors rather than burying these features behind opt-in screens;

• Addiction prevention: Allowing young users and their parents to disable manipulative design features and algorithmic recommendations that keep children endlessly scrolling;

• Parental empowerment: Providing parents with new tools to identify harmful behaviors and improved capabilities to report dangerous content.

This push for federal legislation comes as many state attorneys general offices launched investigations and lawsuits against major social media platforms like Meta and TikTok for their targeting of underage users.

New Mexico joins the attorneys general of Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming in this letter to Congressional leadership.

Original source can be found here.