Tensions flared on Capitol Hill Wednesday as lawmakers grappled with a growing slate of child safety proposals that, while marketed as protective measures, are increasingly raising alarm among digital rights advocates over threats to privacy and free speech. Among them are the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the TAKE IT DOWN Act, both of which risk entrenching censorship and surveillance mechanisms under the guise of safeguarding children.
During a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, Republican members doubled down on their push for KOSA — a bill that many expect to usher in widespread online age verification and content filtering mandates — despite it being shelved by their own party last year. Meanwhile, the TAKE IT DOWN Act, aimed at targeting non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated content, has found support from major tech companies like Meta and X, even as digital freedom organizations criticize the legislation’s vague terminology that can cause legitimate speech and satire to be removed.
The hearing, normally a venue for bipartisan consensus around online child safety, unfolded in a sharply polarized environment. Democrats, while largely supportive of legislative action, used the occasion to raise deeper concerns about the rule of law and the crumbling enforcement apparatus under the Trump administration. Last week’s dismissal attempt of the two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission — Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya — cast a long shadow over the proceedings.
Both commissioners were critical in overseeing the FTC’s consumer protection efforts, including responsibilities for enforcing online safety legislation like KOSA and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0).
Slaughter, invited to testify by the Democratic minority, reinforced the same concerns. “You can’t meaningfully address kids online safety in bills that would empower the FTC to enforce kids online safety if you don’t talk about whether the FTC is a functional body consistent with the design of Congress,” she told reporters afterward.
Republican lawmakers tried to steer the discussion away from institutional integrity, instead demanding a focus solely on children’s welfare. “This hearing is about children. It’s not about what’s going on here in Washington, DC,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), while others attempted to deflect media scrutiny of the FTC situation. Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN) even criticized journalists for highlighting the firings, stating, “Shame on the media if the only thing they cover from today is the FTC, because children are dying.”
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), a co-sponsor of KOSA, echoed the unease. “We can talk about the importance of passing new legislation here in this hearing,” she said. “But how do you rebuild trust in Republicans if you take the cops off the beat, you give the Big Tech CEOs a front-row seat to the inauguration, [and] you block the KOSA and COPPA that was hammered out over years of work in this committee?”
While the stated intent of bills like KOSA and the TAKE IT DOWN Act is to protect vulnerable users, such legislation often paves the way for broad content moderation powers that can be easily weaponized, the destruction of online anonymity, and the introduction of digital ID. The inclusion of vague language, coupled with enforcement by a politically compromised FTC, could lead to the suppression of lawful speech under pressure from political or corporate interests.
