2025-12-30
Dear Advocate,
On this day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, we ask you to take a moment to advocate for protection of innocent children in our modern-day, online world.
We have been working for many years to get Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), H.R. 6484,. This bill was designed to provide for a "duty of care," implement transparency requirements and parental safeguards, set requirements for technological algorithyms/"filter bubbles," and other requirements.
Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives, Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade passed a suite of bills, which included KOSA. During the session, some Representatives expressed a lack of support for some of KOSA's strong protections. The bill was modified by the Subcommittee and a "watered down" verion was passed that takes away the "duty of care" mandate for platforms and applies to a much narrower list of possible harms to children online.
On the Senate side, KOSA, S. 1748, retains those important provisions, although it has not made much progress. Thus, both Chambers appear to be at an ideological standstill, and this has happened in prior years which resulted in a stalemate and no passage.
Online safety for children remains one of our top advocacy priorities. Let us take a moment today to encourge Congress to take action, with the hopes that a final bill will be closer to the more robust Senate version.
While the future outlook of KOSA remains uncertain, we know children have been harmed and some have committed suicide from being exploited and trafficked online. As we pray for the protection of children, let us take a moment to tell Congress why this is important legislation and ask them to do more for our nation's inncoents.
ACT NOW
May you have many blessings in 2026!
Alliance to End Human Trafficking