Oklahoma AG Drummond supports passage of Kids Online Safety Act
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - The Office of the Attorney General Gentner Drummond's office announced on Monday, the support of the passage to the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).
Drummond's office alongside a coalition of 31 state attorneys general are urging Congress to address the growing crisis of youth mental health linked to social media.
“Our youth are spending untold hours a day on social media platforms without proper safeguards to protect them from toxic content and addictive algorithms,” said Drummond.
“There are commonsense measures that need to be taken to protect our children from harm when they are online.”
The coalition highlighted several key provisions of KOSA that would enhance online protections for minors:
- Mandatory default safety settings: Requiring platforms to automatically enable their strongest safety protections for minors rather than burying these features behind opt-in screens.
- Addiction prevention: Allowing young users and their parents to disable manipulative design features and algorithmic recommendations that keep children endlessly scrolling.
- Parental empowerment: Providing parents with new tools to identify harmful behaviors and improved capabilities to report dangerous content.
According to the AG's office, the push for federal legislation is at the forefront after investigations and lawsuits have been launched against social media platforms targeting underage users.
The following states joining are the attorneys general of Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming.
Read full letter here.