KOSA: How Teens Are Being Disturbed on Social Networks – The Story of a Capitol Hill Students’ Lobbying for Digital Rights

The teens brought to Capitol Hill by the American Civil Liberties Union do not believe in the power of the internet. Their concerns are wide-ranging, and the content they care about differs from person to person. But one theme kept emerging — the sense that they were being disrespected by the adults in the room.

The Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act would impose new responsibilities on tech platforms accessed by teens. The Senate has not passed major internet protections for kids in over two decades.

KOSA, in particular, has generated hope and support among parent advocates, many of whose children died by suicide after experiencing cyberbullying. Parents are lobbying against guns because they are the most common cause of death among children and teens, but they have not gained much ground. The parent advocates who support KOSA have found much more success.

Free speech organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — which believes KOSA will stifle speech on the internet and endanger marginalized groups — have vocally opposed the bill. Civil libertarian and industry interests have the same fear that legal pressure on platforms will cause chilling effects. For that reason, the ACLU is walking arm in arm with tech-funded groups.

Some of KOSA’s most persuasive proponents were the parent advocates. Perhaps, for that reason, the ACLU brought students to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers from the other side. The teens were at the National Advocacy Institute, which is a weeklong program for high school students interested in social justice advocacy.

The lead cosponsor of the legislation was Senator Marsha Blackburn (R- Tennessee). cited “protecting minor children from the transgender in this culture” as a top priority and, shortly after, brought up KOSA and how she thinks children are being “indoctrinated” on social media. The bill has been amended to appease critics like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), with language that is supposed to limit the law’s ability to stop access to resources for trans youth. GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, The Trevor Project, and others dropped their opposition, though they stopped short of endorsing the bill.

Taking information on the internet: a rising senior from Maryland worries about the future of the American Internet and what it will mean for young people in America

There has always been a discrepancy between the grown-ups who make policy and the youth who are affected, but at this time of the year there’s a big gap. The Senate is now at its highest age in over 100 years.

The rising senior from Pennsylvania believes that lawmakers underestimate her generation’s intelligence. “We take information online with a grain of salt, and we are able to evaluate sources and think critically and say, ‘Is this something that I want to take to heart? Is this something I want to absorb?’”

Shradha Bista, a rising senior from Maryland, worried that being sheltered from information would leave young people unprepared when the floodgates of the internet fully opened as soon as they come of age. “We lose a lot of the skills that we could be learning at a younger age,” she said.

At a time when movements around the country are trying to keep resources out of schools, it’s important for students to have access to a wide range of resources online. Verma said she’s seen close-up what it’s like to be in a school district that’s tried to ban books or aspects of their curriculum and worries that limiting teens’ access to information will endanger the “next generation of changemakers because we are not given the adequate information to be free thinkers that are ready to make changes in this world.”

The students were worried about not being able to share information. As a woman of color, I post a lot about immigration. I post about content related to who I am and what my identities are,” said Bista. “And that is how I inform the people around me about the inner workings of my identity and the inner workings of systems in America that may be hurting me and who I am and what I stand for.”

The access to information and their ability to share it are both concerns for these teens. Bista said that, just as she shares information from her own point of view, she learns about the experiences of other communities on the internet. Identity is the ongoing project of understanding oneself and communicating it to the world around you; in the modern era, the internet has become a place to both be yourself and to discover yourself. For some people in the queer community, the internet gives them a vital source of information.

The group for trans queer youth in New Orleans relies on social media to spread the word about their events and advocacy, and Matt is a part of it. They worry that KOSA might make it harder for them to find the group.

With the politicization of trans healthcare, there’s been a fair amount of attention on KOSA’s potential impact on trans health information, and the bill has been amended in response to those concerns. But the teens had other health information concerns as well. A rising senior from California said she found useful information about how to combat Vaping Addiction on social media. She worried that kids won’t be able to see content like that if social media platforms apply broad filters to their feeds on terms like “addiction”

Matt said their mom was proactive in making sure they followed accounts that would make them feel safe and “happy about who I am” when they joined Instagram at age 15. The parent has a responsibility to protect their children and make sure they have enough freedom. But it is not the government’s job to do that,” Matt said.

Philhower believes that KOSA has the ability to mitigate feature like autoplay or infinite scroll feeds. She said that the harms were outweighing the benefits with the approach of KOSA. She hopes legislators keep working on ways to protect kids from online harms, even if it is not easy.

There is legislation that doesn’t ban social media. It doesn’t do away with the internet, doesn’t censor free speech, or deprive us of the ability to enjoy the fundamentally good parts of the internet. The areas where we see connection, compassion, and community. It allows us to shape our online experiences. It moves choice to the top of that priority list. It changes the dynamic and makes it a safer environment for our generation.”

What Do We Want to Do About Our Children? How Do We Know What We Do and What We Don’t Have to Do? A Conversation with Matt on a Student Lobby at the White House

On the phone after the vote, Matt said they weren’t entirely surprised that the Senate voted the way it did. The students themselves had mostly talked to House legislators. More than 15 senators and more than 60 House representatives from both sides of the aisle were among those students met with.

According to Matt, he is confident the House heard them and saw the impact that it will make on the youth, and they will reflect that in their votes.

According to Philhower,Lawmakers don’t only doubt our media literacy, they actually doubt our literacy about life. The adults she had spoken to that day were “so proud and so surprised” that she had shown up to lobby on an issue. “And while of course I’ll take the praise, I was kind of frustrated because I was like, ‘Why should this be surprising to you? Why is a youth speaking up about something that she cares about, why is that out of the ordinary?’”

For a long time, children were supposed to sit at the dinner table and not speak. I think there is an image of youth being unable to do anything. We have not been allowed to do anything.

Philhower thinks that will change. “I think we have the power, and older generations don’t see that. And maybe it’s because they grew up in a world where they weren’t heard and seen. But we want to be heard, and we want to be seen, and it’s time for people to listen to us.”

The Impact of Cyberbullying on Children’s Internet Safety: Parent-Friendly User Settings as an Implementation of a New Law to Protect Children

The last time Congress passed a law to protect children on the internet was in 1998 — before Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and smartphones. The legislation would require tech companies to implement measures to help protect kids from exposure to harmful content.

For example, companies would be prohibited from using algorithms to push content that underage users did not specifically search for. This addresses a huge concern of parents and advocates: that kids are targeted with content that promotes harmful behavior, such as eating disorders, sexual exploitation and substance abuse.

Parent advocates of the bill say the new requirements will make it easier to protect their kids from becoming victims of cyberbullying. They say more parent-friendly user settings will make it easier to control what their kids are exposed to online.

It is the first time that social media and other online platforms have a legal responsibility to consider how they are impacting children.

Vaishnavi J., founder of Vyanams Strategies, says that the impact of cyberbullying is addressed, because it isn’t directly called out in the legislation.

“They are typically under-represented from marginalized communities. They aren’t getting the range of societal support they deserve,” J. says. That extends to online as well.

Source: A historic new law would protect kids online and hold tech companies accountable

A Game-Changing House Bill that Protects Families from Cyberbullying and Other Digital Threats – After David’s Death, David Was Bullied on Snapchat

All 50 states have laws against bullying, and every state — except Wisconsin and Alaska — include specific references to cyberbullying. There are not federal laws that make it illegal to cyberbully.

The Senate worked with the families to get the legislation passed. After months of online threats, her son David took his own life. Molak is urging every House member to vote in favor of what she says is a game-changing bill.

“It’s game-changing for young people. It’s game-changing for families,” she says. “I hear it over and over again that it’s like a game of Whac-A-Mole. As soon as parents figure out to keep their kids safe on one platform — three more pop up.”

Bride is also part of an ongoing effort on Capitol Hill to craft legislation that would hold social media sites and other tech companies accountable for keeping minors safe online.

After her son’s death, Bride joined the Parents for Safe Online Space, an organization of families who lost children after they were exposed to toxic online content. Some died by suicide after cyberbullying or sextortion; others after participating in viral challenges involving self-harm or taking drugs sold by online dealers.

“Carson received over 100 harassing and sexually explicit texts from his high school classmates through an anonymous messaging app on Snapchat,” Bride says. “The last search on his phone before he ended his life was for hacks to find out who was doing this to him.”

The loss of her son was devastating, and it occured in 2020. She says shortly before he took his own life he was bullied on the social media site Snapchat.