Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media director welcomes Snap endorsement of KOSA, calls on Congress to protect children

In response to Snap, the parent company of the popular app Snapchat, becoming the first social media company to publicly support the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), Issue One’s Council of Responsible Social Media Director Alix Fraser issued the following statement:

“It’s no coincidence that Snap chose to endorse KOSA now, days before their CEO testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about their consistent failures to protect kids online. We welcome their endorsement, and for breaking ranks with the other Big Tech companies by becoming the first platform to support KOSA. The time has come for Congress to end Big Tech’s reign of unaccountability by adopting responsible safeguards that finally place people over profits. We hope Snap will lead by example by preemptively enacting the strongest safety default settings that KOSA requires and work with policymakers to bring KOSA to the Senate floor for a vote.”

Additionally, in response to Meta announcing it will restrict adults from messaging teens who don’t follow them, Fraser also said the following:

“Today’s changes announced by Meta are too little, too late. Turning off the ability for teens to receive messages from non-friends by default is important. But the company should’ve taken action years ago, before its messenger tools were used for harassment, predation, and grooming of minors. Newly unredacted documents in New Mexico’s lawsuit against Meta revealed an internal estimate that as many as 100,000 children were sexually harassed every day, but Meta did little to keep them safe. If the company truly wants to protect kids, it will endorse and help pass KOSA.”