Bill in Congress Could Jeopardize Access to Vital Digital Spaces for Teachers and Students
By: Kurt Thigpen
There is no question that our country should take children’s online safety seriously. As younger generations grow up in an increasingly digital world, our country is having a meaningful discussion on how to keep them safe, ensure their privacy, and support their growth. In the search for policy solutions, we have to strike a balance that ensures we do not needlessly censor communities online. Unfortunately, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) misses the mark.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and as online platforms become integral to our daily lives, kids and teens have become highly active users. But this isn’t just mindless scrolling. For marginalized communities, in particular, access to online resources has played a crucial role in helping them understand their identities. Recent studies have even shown that over 70 percent of LGBTQ+ individuals cite online spaces as having a significant impact on their understanding of their identities, particularly for younger people and those who identify as transgender. For them, particularly those who face regular bullying and harassment in their schools or homes, the internet is more than just a space to connect with friends – it’s a vital lifeline to community, support, and acceptance.
Meanwhile, social platforms have also become powerful supporting tools for educators. Taking cues from years of remote and hybrid instruction, more and more teachers are turning to video-based platforms to help deliver their curriculums in more engaging ways, which they have found to be particularly helpful in enhancing student learning.
Considering the growing uses and importance of social platforms in our society, it should be evident that striking a balance in regulating them is vital. Indeed, we’ve seen this debate play out in various state and federal settings over the past few years. Yet, despite the nuance that this conversation demands, Congress has pushed forward with a bill that jeopardizes access and could even encourage the censorship of constitutionally protected speech online.
KOSA, which recently advanced out of House Energy and Commerce Committee, risks repeating the damaging faults committed by policies set in the Trump era – SESTA and FOSTA – which disproportionately censored LGBTQ+ communities online.
KOSA leads with vague and ambiguous language that charges social platforms with a “duty of care” to moderate content based on what could be considered harmful to minors. But since the bill fails to define what that could mean, it leaves the interpretation with social platforms and its proposed enforcers.
Open-ended and unprecedented regulations like these pose a significant threat to access and expression online. Not only would KOSA empower enforcers to wield its provisions to challenge platforms that refuse to take down content they disagree with, but it could also lead to the platforms themselves suppressing any potentially controversial content. In states with partisan-agenda-driven leadership, this could mean the erasure of vital content that teachers and their students rely on, such as LGBTQ+-focused resources and support.
As an education advocate, I have a unique appreciation for the importance of protecting children in today’s digital age. In that pursuit, we must not sacrifice access to crucial resources and online communities that teachers and students rely on. KOSA, in its current form, risks doing just that. To rectify this, lawmakers should look to update KOSA’s language to more clearly define its provisions to ensure a less subjective interpretation of enforcement.
Kurt Thigpen is an openly LGBTQ+ author, former elected school board trustee, and small business owner based in Reno.
