Sen. Blackburn says there’s ‘urgent need’ to pass kids online safety bill amid roadblock in House

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) released a video Monday emphasizing the “urgent need” to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), aimed at increasing children’s digital safety and privacy.

In the two-and-a-half-minute long video, titled “Why We Must Pass the Kids Online Safety Act,” Blackburn spoke with a Tennessee woman whose 17-year-old son, Vaughn-Thomas, took a pill laced with fentanyl that he potentially bought from Snapchat.

Thomas suffered fentanyl poisoning and died after taking what his mother called “counterfeit Xanax.”

“When Vaughn-Thomas didn’t wake up to his alarm, that’s when we found him,” the mother, Kathy, told Blackburn. “He took what he thought was a Xanax, it was a counterfeit Xanax [laced with fentanyl].”

When Blackburn asked how he acquired it, Kathy said some of it may have been acquired through the social media platform Snapchat.

“One mistake should not have been a death sentence for Vaughn-Thomas,” Kathy said.

Blackburn, a co-author of the KOSA bill alongside Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), said the bill would require social media platforms “to design for safety and to have that duty of care.”

The bill would create regulations to govern the kinds of features tech and social media companies could offer to minors online. It comes after years of advocacy regarding the potential risks of social media and its impact on youth mental health.

“We have found so many kids that are meeting these drug dealers online, and the precursors come from China into Mexico, and then the drug cartels bring it into the country,” Blackburn said. “Over 100,000 Americans a year die.”

KOSA passed the Senate in a 91-3 vote in late July as part of a package that included the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Action Act, called COPPA 2.0. 

While it received overwhelming support in the upper chamber, the legislation has remained stalled in the House amid resistance from leadership.

House GOP leadership suggested last month that the legislation cannot be brought to the floor in its current form, arguing it could prompt censorship of speech and give new authority to the Federal Trade Commission.

The pressure is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to mark up the legislation before lawmakers depart Washington for a preelection recess that will stretch past the November election.

A group of parents whose children have died or been seriously harmed as a result of social media gathered outside the Capitol last Thursday morning to call on the committee to advance the bill.

Blackburn’s and Blumenthal’s offices told The Hill dozens of parents and youth from multiple advocacy groups will meet with House offices this week to urge them to take up KOSA.