WASHINGTON—The Biden administration appears to be trying to push forward the highly controversial and bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) legislative measure in the U.S. Congress. Protecting a child from online predation is paramount to lawmakers, but this measure could allow for government censorship against conservative content on social media and possibly allow unelected bureaucrats at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to dictate what children can be exposed to online instead of empowering their parents.
But as the KOSA bill in both the Senate and House of Representatives continues to be scrutinized by lawmakers, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced what appears to be a bill that offers a better alternative.
Sen. Lee recently introduced his App Store Accountability Act, a measure that puts parents in the driver’s seat when it comes what their children can access on the internet.
“App stores can protect themselves from liability by enforcing age verification and parental controls. We have the technology to ensure age verification without ending anonymity online or endangering First Amendment rights, and we should use it,” stated Sen. Lee on “X. “Younger and younger children are seeing sexual and violent content online through a variety of apps.”
The Mom’s for Liberty grassroots parental rights grou praised Sen. Lee’s efforts to protect children from online predators.
“Parents need to be in the driver’s seat, not the government, when it comes to protecting children online,” posted the group.
In the lower chamber, Rep. John James (R) has been working on a similar bill as an option for the KOSA bill.
Rep. James recently told The Floridian that he would be filing his bill “by the end of the year.”
We have now learned that Rep. James’ bill could be filed as early as this week.
