More than 100 parents of transgender kids have signed an open letter, urging the U.S. Senate to oppose the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA. The legislation aims to make the internet safer for kids, but LGBTQ advocates take issue with comments made by the bill’s sponsor, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
Blackburn told the Family Alliance that one of her priorities was “protecting minor children from the transgender in this culture and that influence.”
“We love our kids more than anything in the world. Just like any other parent, we would do anything to keep them safe,” the letter says. “Our kids have also been harmed by these companies’ greed: their addictive design, their intrusive surveillance, their failure to address online hate, bullying, and abuse. But legislation like KOSA would make our kids less safe, not more safe.”
The letter raises concerns that the legislation would give new power to state attorneys general to dictate what children can access online. Blackburn’s office says the proposal only allows enforcement related to specific harms: “promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, advertisements for certain illegal products,” like tobacco and alcohol.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has been a fierce defendant of the state’s drag restrictions and its ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, having appealed to a federal court when both laws were temporarily blocked by lower courts.
Parents also worry that KOSA would cut off trans children from “life-saving online resources and community.”
“Please remember that all kids deserve the protection of the state,” says Mary, a parent in Nebraska. “Laws that increase self-loathing and suicide are wrong.”
A spokesperson for Blackburn says that “KOSA will not … target or censor any individual or community.”
Update: This story has been updated to include statements from the senator’s office.
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