Senate Judiciary Committee hearing keeps focus on protecting kids from harms online

In response to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing today about kids’ safety online featuring parent survivor and South Carolina state house Rep. Brandon Guffey among other witnesses, Issue One’s Vice President of Technology Reform Alix Fraser issued the following statement:

“Social media companies continue to run an experiment on our kids — with essentially zero government oversight and devastating impacts on American children and their families. We need Congress to act now to protect children from social media companies that purposefully design their products to be addictive with little regard for safety in order to increase their profits. A near universal majority of Democrats, Republicans, and independents want more safeguards for kids online.

“We are happy that Senate leadership is taking up the important issue of kids’ online safety again. Members of Congress should continue to work on this issue until they pass a bill with commonsense guardrails that target design features and have the president sign it into law.”

Background

Last year, Issue One supported the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which aimed to keep kids safe on social media and hold tech companies accountable for prioritizing making money over children’s well-being and lives. KOSA had near universal support from Americans across the political spectrum, passed in a nearly unprecedented 91-3 vote in the Senate, and received resounding support from members of President Donald Trump’s orbit. However, House leadership blocked it from advancing.