by Kristi Dunn
As a parent and an active advocate for children’s health and public education in Tennessee, I’m deeply invested in the wellbeing of our kids online. But even as Congress deliberates on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), I am concerned that this bill misses the mark on protecting children while putting our constitutional freedoms at risk.
KOSA, originally introduced in 2022 and recently passed in the Senate, aims to limit minors’ exposure to harmful content online. The bill sounds promising in theory. Who doesn’t want children to be safe from inappropriate or harmful material? However, KOSA’s sweeping scope goes far beyond the supposed goal of protecting kids — it grants federal bureaucrats the ability to monitor and restrict online content across all platforms, ultimately inviting government overreach that intrudes upon First Amendment rights and parental autonomy.
The bill requires that online platforms take extensive measures to limit a vague category of “harmful content,” essentially putting the government in the role of gatekeeper for what children — and potentially all users regardless of age — can see online. The truth is clear: KOSA is a liberal power grab, aiming to censor online speech and eliminating the conservative voice in the process.
While KOSA may be well-intentioned, it introduces a significant threat to free speech. As House Majority Leader Steve Scalise recently cautioned, “If you pass [KOSA], it will do dangerous things. It will empower dangerous people.” This bill gives sweeping authority to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which, under its current leadership, has already demonstrated a willingness to use its power for ideological influence. It is critical that we heed Scalise’s warning, as the potential for the FTC to suppress content under the guise of protecting minors is very real. The FTC Chair Lina Khan’s recent campaign appearances alongside Democratic candidates for Congress raise major red flags about her agency’s neutrality.
Moreover, KOSA undermines the role of parents, who know best how to guide their children’s online lives. Rather than putting the government in charge of deciding what’s appropriate for kids and potentially stifling their online growth and education, we should empower parents with more tools to protect their children while allowing them to take advantage of the vast resources the internet offers young people. Existing parental control features allow for a safer and more individualized approach without restricting content for children and adults alike.
Tennesseans and citizens across the country are at risk of losing their right to privacy. KOSA would require online platforms to verify the ages of all users — an invasive requirement that endangers personal data. To comply with KOSA, platforms would need to gather additional sensitive information, putting both children’s and adults’ privacy at risk. The last thing we want is to create a central source of personal data that cybercriminals could exploit.
Across the board, we can agree on the goal of making the internet a safer place for children, but KOSA sacrifices core American values to achieve an incomplete solution. Instead of handing over our freedoms to unelected bureaucrats, we should focus on alternative measures that keep kids safe without compromising our rights or our privacy. Parents, not the federal government, should be the ones to monitor their children online, and we should demand better than a one-size-fits-all policy that risks stripping Americans of their right to free speech.
I urge Representative Andy Ogles and his colleagues in the House to carefully weigh these factors and reject KOSA for the good of the people of Tennessee and the United States. I urge our lawmakers to advocate for our children’s safety in ways that maintain the internet’s educational value, respect our rights, preserve parental roles and safeguard the online freedoms we all cherish, before it is too late.
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Kristi Dunn is a mother, health care worker, and activist based in Wilson County, Tennessee.
Photo “Kids on Smartphones” by Richard Leeming CC2.0.
