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We must work together to
Keep Kids
SAFE and CONNECTED

Our kids deserve access to information and the virtual tools critical in keeping them connected and engrained in their communities without fear of being exploited. Policymakers have the opportunity to prioritize the privacy and safety of kids while empowering parents to be active participants in how their child operates online.

  • "KOSA remains a dangerous bill that would allow the government to decide what types of information can be shared and read online by everyone. It would still require an enormous number of websites, apps, and online platforms to filter and block legal, and important, speech."

  • "Today's changes to KOSA's text do not resolve the fundamental issue that its duty of care provision can still be weaponized to suppress LGBTQ+ content. KOSA is still a dangerous bill for marginalized communities!”

  • "New bill text, same problems. The latest version of KOSA continues to hand right-wing attorneys general power to censor online content. And it still forces platforms to over-moderate marginalized communities online."

  • "The revised #KOSA will still incentivize online services to limit recommending content that government actors might claim harm youth mental health, potentially including speech ab repro rights, racial justice, & LGBTQ+ issues that can be critically important to many young people."

    CDT

Our Mission

We are united by a concern that Congress is advancing legislation that will create new vulnerabilities for children’s and adults’ private data; expose children to new and unregulated safety concerns; leave parents with limited ways to keep their children safe; cut off the next generation from information critical to their education; and limit freedom of expression.

We support measures that would meaningfully improve online privacy and safety. These bills under consideration would do the opposite and put our kids’ futures at risk:

  • The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)

  • The STOP CSAM Act (CSAM)

  • The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (EARN IT Act)

  • The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act

A Vision to Keep Kids Safe and Connected: Child and Teen Safety Principles

Our kids deserve access to information and the virtual tools critical to keeping them connected and engrained in their communities without fear of being exploited. Policymakers have the opportunity to prioritize the privacy and safety of kids while empowering parents to be active participants in how their child operates online.

The following are the principles we believe should ground federal policy – including legislation – to keep kids safe and connected while holding platforms accountable for doing just that.

Keep kids safe. 

Platforms should be required to be more transparent.

We need to minimize the collection of personal data from children and teens and restrict the ways in which data is used, and provide easy-to-use and easy-to-access tools that empower children, teens, and families to customize safety protections and exercise rights over their own data. 

Advertising should not be based on online behaviors or activity of children and teens. Indeed, we should protect children’s personal information with strong security safeguards that are appropriate to the level of sensitivity of the personal information collected, used, or shared.

Keep kids connected.

We must ensure children and teens have equitable access to educational material on the internet and through other digital applications, and support resourcing to foster media and digital literacy in K-12 schools.

Keep platforms accountable.

Risk-based impact assessments to address risks to children and teens should be required, and we should empower enforcement for additional accountability. Advancing consistent rules across the United States is pivotal in achieving this. 

Get Connected

If you have any questions, comments, or want to join the campaign, please reach out to us.