2024 was shaping up to be the year Congress regulated how kids engage with social media, particularly through one bill, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). A debate about its risks to free expression still raged, but the voices of the bill's advocates seemed to ring loudest in senators' ears. The momentum was there. The Senate vote was virtually unanimous. Then, unexpectedly, House Republican leadership - worried KOSA would make Silicon Valley giants remove more conservative content - let it fade away.
Now, after a hundred chaotic days of the Trump administration, the once-rational bet of new child safety legislation is looking shakier. Parent and youth advocates continue to hammer the urgency of passing bills like KOSA, as well as new regulations to address the proliferation of AI-created nude images of minors. But civil liberties groups - which already feared these bills put marginalized kids at risk - now warn they could give Trump new weapons to wield against speech they disagree with. Meanwhile, some lawmakers wonder if the administration's dramatically weakened regulators can enforce the rules at all.
Nearly four months into 2025, KOSA has yet to be reintroduced in Congress …
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