#StopKOSA (Support Pirate party)

Some thoughts on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) now that I see even Elon Musk and X are supporting it: KOSA fits the usual mold we see with so many “online child safety” laws: Big on good intentions, but loaded with unintended consequences. Raising kids in the digital age is incredibly challenging, and policymakers obviously want to do something to help. I get it. Like so many other parents, my own experiences raising two Digital Natives was difficult. But now that they are grown young adults, I always read through bills like this will two simple questions in mind: (1) What would this bill have done to actually help address the problems my kids faced online (which turned out to be very different in both their cases)? (2) How would this law have helped me as a parent guide them better or protect them? For me, the really important thing to remember about laws like KOSA is that they just won’t accomplish much of anything useful in practice for kids or parents. 15 years ago, I published a multi-volume book on parental controls and online child safety efforts, and I also served on multiple blue ribbon child safety commissions, including one I was a co-chair of for President Obama. After years of studying these issues and various techno-legalistic approaches to it, I was always led back to the same conclusion: “At the end of the day, there is simply no substitute for talking to our children in an open, loving, and understanding fashion about the realities of-this world, including the more distasteful bits.” This was my Parental Prime Directive, if you will, and it was the final word I wrote on the subject before abandoning this field of study due to my frustration with the way politicians were just never going to stop their quixotic search for techno-legalistic silver-bullet solutions to complex social problems. To elaborate, my personal approach to making sure that “online child safety” meant something real in my own home was to do everything in my power to (a) keep an open mind about new content and platforms that my children engaged with, and then (b) ensure an open line of ongoing communication with my kids about the issues they might be facing with them. I just always wanted to make sure that my kids felt like they could talk to me about their issues, no matter how varied, horrible, or heart-breaking those problems might be. And, my God, they could be horrible at times. But avoiding or shutting down those conversations, or calling for others to come in and save the day with unworkable techno-legalistic solutions, were the worst two options, in my opinion. 110-page bills full of legalese and open-ended provision like those in KOSA will do more to protect trial lawyers than children. And it does more to empower bureaucrats and AGs than it does to empower parents in any meaningful way. Critics of KOSA typically note the many First Amendment-related concerns and privacy-related issues with the law. Indeed, this law, like so many other “child safety” laws before it, KOSA will likely get challenged and fall in the courts on those grounds. A lot of companies like X who end up supporting the bill are quietly hoping the law will be quickly enjoined because they know that they have no choice but to publicly support these bills or else there will be hell to pay with politicians. But that’s not even close to being the best reason to oppose KOSA. We should oppose KOSA because it is a fraud. It gives us false hope. Silver-bullet techno-legalistic solutions are LOSING solutions for kids and real “child safety.” Laws like KOSA divert our time, attention, and energy away from the hard business at hand. Believe me, I wish just passing a long law would make parenting magically easier and make online problems all go away. But when politicians sell us snake oil solutions to such complex social challenges, they are doing parents and children a great disservice. Just endlessly passing unworkable and likely unconstitutional laws is basically a form of political false advertising.