Attorney General Gentner Drummond has urged Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) before the year ends, aiming to protect children from online dangers. Drummond, alongside 31 other state attorneys general, emphasized the urgent need to tackle the rising youth mental health crisis linked to social media usage in a letter sent last week to Congressional leaders.
“Our youth are spending untold hours a day on social media platforms without proper safeguards to protect them from toxic content and addictive algorithms,” said Drummond. “There are commonsense measures that need to be taken to protect our children from harm when they are online.”
The coalition pointed out several key aspects of KOSA designed to enhance online safety for minors:
- Mandatory default safety settings: Platforms would be required to automatically activate their strongest safety protections for minors instead of hiding these features behind opt-in screens.
- Addiction prevention: Young users and their parents could disable manipulative design features and algorithmic recommendations that keep children endlessly scrolling.
- Parental empowerment: Parents would receive new tools for identifying harmful behaviors and improved capabilities for reporting dangerous content.
This call for federal legislation comes as many states, including Oklahoma, have initiated investigations and lawsuits against major social media companies like Meta and TikTok for targeting underage users.
The letter was also signed by attorneys general from 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 Mexico, New York North Dakota Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Utah Vermont and Wyoming.