by Renee McNeil
Between the presidential election, foreign conflicts across the globe, and major pocketbook issues like inflation and healthcare prices, it is safe to say that Washington, D.C. and the rest of the country have a lot to keep up with these days. Unfortunately, that means that a horribly flawed piece of legislation that will impact how all Americans interact with the internet is making its way through Congress with little attention from anyone but political insiders.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), passed earlier this year by the Senate after being pushed by Chuck Schumer and Democrats, is currently sitting before the House of Representatives. I feel compelled to raise my voice against this bill and to make my fellow Tennesseans aware of the threats it poses to our rights and personal freedoms.
The bill’s proponents admittedly named it well — everyone can agree on protecting children — but ironically, this misguided attempt to let D.C. bureaucrats further regulate the internet and free speech will not make our children safer online. Instead, it will severely infringe on Americans’ First Amendment rights by censoring speech and limiting the breadth of perspectives and information currently available to internet users. This represents a massive government overreach that violates parental rights and interferes with personal family decisions in several ways.
First, KOSA would impose broad regulations on online platforms that will have a chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech. By creating vague definitions of what is “harmful” or “inappropriate” for children, the bill hands authority over to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to censor speech that the agency disagrees with or finds objectionable under the guise of child protection. This is concerning enough before considering the FTC is led by Chair Lina Khan, who is currently under investigation by the House Oversight Committee for partisan campaign appearances with Democratic candidates across the country.
Can Republicans really trust that Khan and her FTC will enforce KOSA fairly across the spectrum of political beliefs and information? Or will she weaponize the law to take down traditional conservative viewpoints, such as pro-life or pro-faith information, all while giving the green light to content promoting transgender identity and pro-vaccine information? If KOSA feels like a law ripe for abuse to violate conservatives’ freedom of speech, your instincts aren’t wrong.
KOSA also represents one of the biggest threats to parental autonomy in years. Parents are the only ones in the unique position to guide their children’s growth and education, but KOSA would insert government bureaucrats into personal family decisions about how kids interact with the internet. Not only is this a violation of parental rights, but it risks limiting the ways in which kids learn and grow on the internet – particularly in today’s digital age where vast resources and learning materials are available to them. There is no reason the government should dictate how our children are growing up.
I am disappointed that Senate Republicans did not stop KOSA before it advanced to the House, but Tennessee’s representatives in Washington, like Congressman Andy Ogles, can defend our rights by squarely rejecting it. In doing so, they will be the ones protecting kids, not the Democrats pushing this disaster of a bill.
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Renee McNeil is a conservative free speech activist and grassroots campaigner in Williamson County.
