Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association issued this statement ahead of an anticipated U.S. Senate vote on the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) this week.
KOSPA includes the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). A broad group of stakeholders including civil rights groups have repeatedly expressed concerns, including in a recent letter explaining that this would lead to broad restrictions on online speech, raise serious First Amendment concerns, and create confusing compliance problems for businesses’ efforts to protect young people online.
The following can be attributed to CCIA President & CEO Matt Schruers:
“The broadly shared goal of protecting younger users online is something we support, so we are disappointed this legislation risks doing more harm than good. KOSPA raises serious First Amendment concerns by silencing speech, and creates greater privacy risks for all internet users through forced data collections and untested technology mandates.”