Letās talk about this. This is something I havenāt seen a lot of in my end, and this new bill may be troubling to not just us as a whole, but content creators. So, this isnāt just exclusive to AO3 anymore. This can go as far as places like Wattpad, Quotev, DeviantArt, and here.
So, to put it bluntly, if you give a fuck, listen.
KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act,) is a bill within the United States that was initially created last year with the aim of protecting youth (considerably age 16 and under,) from viewing harmful content online. It has since been updated and reintroduced by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN.) Now, on surface level, it may seem like this has a good outlook, right? Not in the slightest. This bill, while it may not be passed yet rather introduced, may take an extreme to protect youth and monitor all. Yes, I said monitor.
Not only is NSFW content bound to be flagged, which may totally censor a lot of creators not just on this platform but others, a wider band that is under this new bill is LGBT+ content. According to Senator Blackburn of Tennessee, who is KOSAās co-author, even education on race discrimination was viewed as ādangerous to kids,ā and this soon branches out to race, gender, and sexuality discrimination. This also extends out to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, etc. The bill puts itself in the hands of State Attorney Generals in order for them to use tools of censorship against our rights and safetyā not just for the youth, but for adults too, as we may face (giving an example,) hurdles trying to obtain things like legal documents.
KOSA works by acting as a censor and self filter for the internet. By the hands of Attorney State Generals, they ultimately decide what is harmful to kids online. Though, this is a dual edged sword. This would also present the loss of access to information that a large sum of people may not deem dangerous. This again extends outward towards things like depression, substance abuse, etcā complex topics without a clear agreement on causes or solutions. This means that it could also filter, and possibly censor medical information, extending outward to trans medical care as well, which may lead on to silence the transgender community further. This is a very bad thing.
There would still be features like Age Verification, but it also filters legal speech. What I mean by āthere will still be features,ā to give an example, Tumblr has a tab in settings where you can add your birthday, which in turn verifies how old you are. Tiktok has this feature as well. About filtering legal speech, any kind of media or information that has to do with societal ills that is held on a platform, for example, Tumblr, will enable that platform to be held liable for holding that information. Butā¦ it may seem like Iām getting off topic, arenāt I?
So letās swing back aroundā¦
KOSA has the ability to hurt creators on several different platforms. This gives the United States Government unlimited range of control over the internet.
This linktree has at least four different petitions open for you to take action against the bill, and to contact your congressmen and women. Thereās also a discord server thatās dedicated to stopping KOSA from passing.
By doing this, you are spreading your voice. You are helping millions of people nationallyā creators, artists, writers, everyone.
And finally, donāt just like this post. Reblog itā it helps it spread and gain exposure.
Letās put an end to KOSA.
