ParentsSOS Members Invite Mark Zuckerberg to Join Advocacy Fight

Parents Who Lost Children to Online Harms Ask Meta CEO to Join Their Effort to Urge Congress to Pass the Kids Online Safety Act this Year

(Washington, D.C.) —  As reported by Mashable today, Parents for Safe Online Spaces (ParentsSOS), a coalition of families who have lost children to online harms, sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking him to join their advocacy fight to urge Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) this year. 

The letter was sent on the heels of the lawsuit settlement between Meta and 47 state Attorneys General regarding tech industry standards around preventing online harms. On August 26, a Meta colleague went on the record about the settlement, stating: “I think legislation would have been the best answer to this issue. It would be better to have this done by a legislature, which can immediately bind all of our competitors to the same rules.” The Meta official added:  “We didn't get there this Congress” with the Kids Online Safety Act, but “this deal is designed to lead us to basically the same place." 

ParentsSOS was keen to point out Meta’s change in tone around KOSA given the fact that the company spent millions of dollars to block this legislation from moving forward. 

The letter states: 

“We agree that federal legislation that binds all companies to the same rules is critical. As you are probably aware, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA, S. 1748) is a wildly popular bipartisan bill that would create the industry standards Meta now seeks…

“Fortunately there is still time to pass this life-saving legislation in this Congress. Given your recently changed views on needing federal legislation to prevent online harms within the industry, will you stop lobbying against KOSA; publicly pledge your support for the bill; and share your support with President Trump and leaders in Congress? That could make a huge difference in creating the long-lasting industry-wide standards for protecting children that we all want.”

As of today, September 2, Mr. Zuckerberg has yet to respond to the letter.

KOSA passed the Senate in 2024 with a 91-3 vote, but the House failed to move it forward that year.

Currently, KOSA is a widely popular bipartisan bill that would create the industry standards that Meta now seeks. More importantly, KOSA would create a duty of care for online platforms to ensure that the design of their products does not cause social media addiction or other serious harms to minors. ■