Survivor Parents Express Disappointment, Urge House to Advance Stronger, Bipartisan Version of KOSA

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Members of ParentsSOS, a coalition of 20 survivor families who have lost children to online harms, attended today’s markup of the Kids Online Safety Act in the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. Joann Bogard, mother of Mason Bogard (forever 15), issued the following statement on ParentsSOS’s behalf: 

“Today’s subcommittee markup, like the revised House text of the Kids Online Safety Act, was a disappointment and a missed opportunity to deliver strong protections for American families. As our coalition has stated time and again, any online safety legislation must include, at the very least, a ‘Duty of Care’ that requires Big Tech companies to prevent and mitigate compulsive use and other online harms. It must also not preempt existing online safety and privacy legislation and preserve states' rights to protect children in the future from harms we may not yet be aware of. 

“We appreciate that the House and Energy & Commerce Committee has been willing to hear our concerns and that they are open to making changes between now and full Committee markup. But we must reiterate: if the House version of KOSA is not significantly strengthened, we will have no choice but to oppose it.” ▪