‘Bizarre’ Child Online Safety Bill ‘Won’t Save Any Lives’

The Children’s Online Safety Act (KOSA) passed the Senate on Thursday in a landslide, but Rand Paul was virtually the only opponent of the legislation.

“I have a lot of sympathy for this issue,” Sen. Paul (R-KY) told The Post. “But I’m concerned it will lead to censorship.”

The bill, which passed by a 91-0 vote, is an attempt to protect children from harm caused by the internet. It establishes a “duty of care” for social media platforms to protect minors and would require them to block content that could cause harm.

Paul said that while the bill is well-intentioned, it could enable the government to censor speech that it subjectively deems to be disturbing to young people.

“The whole idea that we’re going to set up a commission and give a vague definition of anxiety — and then say that everything that causes anxiety is going to be regulated by the group — is bizarre,” Paul added.

He referred to the “absurdity of the anxiety argument,” explaining that virtually anything can be deemed anxiety-inducing by the Federal Trade Commission, which is tasked with enforcing KOSA.

Paul points to a Harvard study that found 65% of 15- to 30-year-olds say they experience persistent anxiety about climate change on a daily basis. KOSA could therefore theoretically be used to censor climate change content.

“I would be one of the first people to be kicked off the internet because I’m sure I’m saying things that are making people feel uncomfortable,” the senator said. “I think there’s a real danger in allowing the government to regulate it or take things down.”

Paul said he fears censorship could affect anyone, regardless of political views — and points to groups on both sides of the aisle that have also come out against KOSA.

Conservative organization Students for Life fears that pro-life content like theirs could be censored because it could be claimed to cause anxiety in children.

Similarly, the ACLU has raised concerns about censorship of pro-choice and LGBT content — warning that the bill “would violate the First Amendment by allowing the federal government to dictate what information people can access online and encouraging social media platforms to censor protected speech.”

Paul fears the bill’s unclear standards will result in mass self-censorship of political speech online.

“You might think that maybe I should self-censor or put less controversial topics on my website or streaming service, because if a child watches it, the attorney general will be on my tail,” he said.

Now that the bill has passed the Senate, the House of Representatives can put it to a vote at any time.

Only Senators Ron Wyden (Democrat of Oregon) and Mike Lee (R-UT) voted against the KOSA Act, which was introduced by Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Republican Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

“There are people on the right and left who misunderstand the First Amendment,” Paul said.

He added that when he expressed his criticism of KOSA to his colleagues, many of them shared his concerns — but voted for the bill nonetheless.

“They’re embarrassed to change their vote,” he said. “They know they’re going to be stigmatized because the title sounds good. They read the title, Kids Online Safety Act, and they thought, ‘How am I supposed to vote against this?’”

“I would go so far as to say that most (senators) have not read the bill,” he continued. “They are doing it for their own self-gratification. They are doing it for their own virtue signaling.”

Paul argues that the KOSA Act was passed in large part because of its moral weight.

“It’s like almost any emotional battle that involves (a) social wrong that they want to fix in Washington,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to save any lives. It’s going to create a bureaucracy, and the terms are unclear. I have no idea what this group (FTC) is going to do.”

While he doesn’t think KOSA is the solution to the problem, Paul says he would be more open to a minimum age restriction for social media: “Just having a minimum age restriction would be different. It would probably be less bad.”

He also says parents, not politicians, should decide what content and social media platforms are appropriate for their children.

“The hypocrisy of the Conservatives is that they are all about family values ​​and parents and everything else, but in this case they are saying the government needs to intervene.”