EXCLUSIVE — House GOP leaders are facing fresh scrutiny from dozens of conservative activists and current and former elected Republicans to pass bipartisan online safety legislation for children.
The push comes months after the measures sailed through the Senate intending to protect minors from possibly dangerous online content on social media platforms. Now, the current Congress has just a few short working weeks before the incoming lawmakers would have to restart the legislative process.
In a written appeal set to be sent to House leaders on Tuesday and first seen by the Washington Examiner, Republican backers of the so-called Kids Online Safety Act and Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act say action is needed to “put the needs of children over those of large corporations.”
“The government has a clear and compelling interest in preventing the sexual exploitation of children and protecting their physical and emotional well-being,” they wrote in a letter. “We are running out of time to save children’s lives, and families have waited long enough.”
Signatories include Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, former officeholders including Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, and Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, George W. Bush Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, and the Institute for Family Studies. The legislation has also garnered several MAGAworld endorsements, including from former Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, U.S. Ambassador to Israel nominee Mike Huckabee, the America First Policy Institute, and the Heritage Foundation.
The package of bills passed the Senate 91-3 in July, just before Congress set out on a six-week summer break. The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced it unanimously in September, prior to another congressional recess before the November elections.
“This ranks as highly as protecting the border and improving the economy,” the Republicans wrote in their letter to House leadership, citing a survey. “Clearly, protecting children is an issue that transcends the political divide.”
A spokesperson for Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), the lawmaker championing the legislation for House Republicans, told the Washington Examiner that he’s “pushing for all of his priority legislation, including KOSA, to come to the floor prior to the end of this term.”
“He has repeatedly expressed this desire to House leadership and will continue to do so,” Bilirakis’s spokesperson said. “However, at this time, he has not been given any type of timeline for advancing the legislation.”
A leadership source familiar with negotiations said there remained “concerns with the constitutionality” of the bills and that because they were not identical to what the Senate passed, the House requires them to go through the committee process that will also entail going before the chamber’s Committee on Education and the Workforce.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) “has spoken favorably about the need to address children’s safety online,” the leadership source said. “The bill has been referred to the next committee, where it will continue to move through the legislative process.”
Industry opponents say more data collection may be required to verify users’ ages, while others cite concerns over free speech. The Federal Trade Commission would oversee enforcement of the measures.
The American Civil Liberties Union is opposed to the legislation because of possible free speech censorship, while tech companies such as Snapchat and Microsoft endorsed the KOSA. Others, including Facebook and Instagram, declined to do so and instead proposed alternative changes.
The KOSA would require online platforms, including social media and gaming sites, to establish a legal obligation known as a “duty of care” to take reasonable protections against potentially harmful content for children and teenagers. That content includes the promotion of illegal products, eating disorders, tobacco or alcohol, substance abuse, bullying, and sexual abuse.
The COPPA would also ban certain ads targeted at children and bar tech companies from collecting the personal information of minors.
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In their letter to House leadership, the Republicans acknowledged concerns but disagreed that the bills would offer “blanket online censorship.”
“As conservatives, we share the desire to protect the freedom of speech — political and otherwise — from infringement or censorship by the government, but KOSA does nothing to prevent adults’ internet access or permit blanket online censorship,” they wrote. “KOSA empowers families with the tools and safeguards needed to protect against toxic online attacks targeting kids.”