If you’re looking to sign a KOSA petition, the most active campaigns are run by opponents of the Kids Online Safety Act. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, and the ACLU are urging constituents to contact Congress and demand the bill be rejected, while supporters, including a coalition of more than 200 health and child-safety groups led by the American Psychological Association and Fairplay, have organized sign-on letters and advocacy pushing Congress to pass it. Which side you add your name to depends on how you weigh the bill’s safety goals against the free speech, LGBTQ+, and privacy concerns its critics raise.
Where to Sign Against KOSA
The largest ongoing petition against the bill is hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation under the title “Tell Congress: KOSA Will Censor the Internet But Won’t Help Kids.”1Electronic Frontier Foundation. Tell Congress: KOSA Will Censor the Internet But Won’t Help Kids Signers send a message directly to their senators and representative asking them to vote no. The EFF reported that its supporters sent nearly 50,000 messages to Congress on KOSA during 2024 alone.2Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Kids Online Safety Act Continues to Threaten Our Rights Online
Fight for the Future has organized student-led letter campaigns, generating hundreds of letters from young people urging lawmakers to scrap the bill.3The New York Times. KOSA Child Online Safety The ACLU has run a parallel push, organizing more than 300 high school students for a lobbying day on Capitol Hill where they met with the staffs of 85 lawmakers.4ACLU. ACLU Slams Senate Passage of Kids Online Safety Act, Urges House to Protect Free Speech
Organizations can also join a coalition sign-on letter coordinated by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the EFF, and Fight for the Future. More than 90 human rights and LGBTQ+ organizations have signed, including the ACLU, the American Library Association, GLAAD, GLSEN, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Tor Project.5Center for Democracy and Technology. More Than 90 Human Rights and LGBTQ Groups Sign Letter Opposing KOSA The letter asks Congress not to attach KOSA to must-pass legislation and to pursue federal privacy legislation instead.
Where to Sign in Support of KOSA
Support is channeled largely through organizational sign-on letters rather than mass individual petitions. More than 200 advocacy groups signed a letter to the Senate urging passage, led by the American Psychological Association, Fairplay, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Common Sense Media, and Mental Health America.6American Psychological Association. Kids Online Safety Act Senate Letter Other signers include Consumer Reports, Heritage Action, the Eating Disorders Coalition, and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.7Office of Senator Blackburn. What They Are Saying: Hundreds of Organizations, Advocates Voice Support for Kids Online Safety Act
Individuals who want to add their voice on the supporting side can do so through Fairplay, which maintains ongoing advocacy pages and has published fact sheets responding to the bill’s critics.8Fairplay. Fairplay Support for the Kids Online Safety Act Survivor and parent groups affiliated with Fairplay have also pushed Congress to pass the stronger Senate version rather than a scaled-back House alternative.9Fairplay. Survivor Parents Deeply Disappointed in House Version of the Kids Online Safety Act
What KOSA Would Actually Do
Before signing anything, it helps to know what the bill contains. KOSA imposes a “duty of care” on covered platforms, including social media networks, video streaming services, messaging apps, and multiplayer online games. Companies must “exercise reasonable care in the creation and implementation of any design feature to prevent and mitigate” specific harms to minors.10Lawfare. The Kids Online Safety Act and the State of Tech Policy The listed harms include mental health disorders such as suicidal behaviors and eating disorders, addiction-like use patterns, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and deceptive marketing.11Office of Senator Blumenthal. Kids Online Safety Act
Platforms would have to enable the strongest privacy settings for minors by default, let young users turn off personalized algorithmic recommendations, and give parents tools to monitor account settings and usage. Parental controls would be on by default for children under 13 and optional for teens 13 to 16.11Office of Senator Blumenthal. Kids Online Safety Act Companies would publish annual transparency reports and submit to independent audits.10Lawfare. The Kids Online Safety Act and the State of Tech Policy
The bill does not require age verification on its face. Its rules apply when a platform has “actual knowledge or knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances” that a user is a minor.10Lawfare. The Kids Online Safety Act and the State of Tech Policy It does not amend Section 230, does not create liability for third-party content, does not include a private right of action, and excludes blogs, personal websites, and nonprofits. The Federal Trade Commission would enforce the duty of care, and neither the FTC nor state attorneys general can sue based on content or speech.11Office of Senator Blumenthal. Kids Online Safety Act
Why Opponents Want You to Sign
The core argument against KOSA is that the duty of care is a content regulation in design-focused clothing. Because the duty is triggered by categories of content on a platform, the EFF argues it amounts to a content-based restriction that is “presumptively unconstitutional” under the First Amendment.12Electronic Frontier Foundation. Analyzing KOSA’s Constitutional Problems in Depth The Center for Democracy and Technology argues that requiring platforms to identify and mitigate “harmful” content effectively “deputizes covered businesses into serving as censors for the state.”13Center for Democracy and Technology. Recent Court Opinions Cast Additional Constitutional Doubt on KOSA’s Duty of Care NetChoice, the tech trade association, calls the bill an “internet speech code.”14NetChoice. Congress Must Reject Landmark Censorship Legislation KOSA
LGBTQ+ groups raise a specific worry about misuse. Opponents point to a statement by lead sponsor Senator Marsha Blackburn suggesting the bill could “protect minor children from the transgender in this culture.”15Brookings Institution. Children’s Online Safety Laws Are Failing LGBTQ Youth More than 20 LGBTQ+ groups, including Freedom Oklahoma and TransOhio, continue to oppose the bill even after revisions. The Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, The Trevor Project, and PFLAG withdrew active opposition after later amendments, saying the changes “significantly mitigate the risk of it being misused to suppress LGBTQ+ resources,” but stopped short of endorsing the bill.16The 19th. Why Some LGBTQ Groups Oppose the Current Kids Online Safety Act
Privacy advocates argue that even without an explicit age-verification mandate, the bill pressures platforms to build verification systems to manage liability, which would require every user to hand over personal data.17Electronic Frontier Foundation. Congress’s Crusade to Age-Gate the Internet The R Street Institute warns that the most reliable methods, facial scanning and government ID collection, create “massive opportunities for breaches” and cut against anonymous online speech.18R Street Institute. R Street Institute Concerns About the Kids Online Safety Act
Anjali Verma, a 17-year-old organizer who lobbied against the bill, put the youth objection this way: “We live on the internet, and we are afraid that important information we’ve accessed all our lives will no longer be available. Regardless of your political perspective, this looks like a censorship bill.”3The New York Times. KOSA Child Online Safety
Why Supporters Want You to Sign
Supporters compare KOSA to product safety standards for physical goods, arguing that social media companies should face the same kind of accountability applied to toys and car seats. They frame the bill as targeting manipulative design choices like autoplay, infinite scroll, and engagement-maximizing algorithms rather than regulating speech.7Office of Senator Blackburn. What They Are Saying: Hundreds of Organizations, Advocates Voice Support for Kids Online Safety Act Fairplay has published materials arguing the revised bill protects queer young people, who are disproportionately targeted by cyberbullying and online exploitation.8Fairplay. Fairplay Support for the Kids Online Safety Act
The bill also picked up high-profile political endorsements in late 2024. Elon Musk wrote “Protecting kids should always be priority #1,” and Donald Trump Jr. urged House Republicans to “pass the Kids Online Safety Act ASAP.”19Fox News. Elon Musk Joins Trump Allies in House GOP Pressure Campaign Over Social Media Bill Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders also voiced support. Those endorsements followed talks between X, led by CEO Linda Yaccarino, and Senator Blackburn that revised the bill to clarify it would not authorize lawsuits based on content or speech.20The Hill. Musk Faces Early Test of Political Power With Online Safety Bill
Where the Bill Stands Now
Pressure on Congress still matters because the bill has not become law. KOSA passed the Senate 91–3 in July 2024 but never received a House floor vote. Issue One reported that tech companies led by Meta spent $51 million in the first three quarters of 2024 fighting the legislation.21Issue One. Congress Fails to Include Kids Online Safety Act in End-of-Year Spending Package
It was reintroduced on May 14, 2025, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joining Senators Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal as co-introducers.22Office of Senator Blackburn. Blackburn, Blumenthal, Thune, and Schumer Introduce the Kids Online Safety Act The bill, now S. 1748, has attracted 75 bipartisan cosponsors.23GovTrack. S. 1748 Cosponsors Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz has said he will move a package of children’s safety legislation, though no formal markup has been scheduled.24The Hill. Cruz Kids Online Safety Act
The House has taken a different route. Its version replaces the Senate’s broad duty of care with a narrower rule limited to threats of physical violence, sexual exploitation, and drug distribution, and adds preemption language that could override state children’s safety laws in Maryland, Nebraska, Texas, and New York.25CT Mirror. KOSA Blumenthal House Version In June 2026, House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders announced a bipartisan agreement on a broader Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act package that folds in pieces of KOSA and 13 other bills, though no vote has been scheduled.26House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Chairman Guthrie and Ranking Member Pallone Announce Agreement on Bipartisan Kids Safety Package Separate White House negotiations would bundle the Senate version of KOSA with the App Store Accountability Act, the NO FAKES Act, and age-verification requirements in exchange for federal preemption of state AI regulations.27Politico. White House’s AI State Preemption Kids Safety Meta has dropped its opposition on the condition that KOSA moves as part of that package. Senator Blumenthal told reporters he is “concerned that the bill may be significantly weakened” by that packaging.28Politico. Meta Opposition KOSA
If you plan to sign a petition, the two chambers and the White House are the current pressure points, and the most influential targets are members of the House and the Senate Commerce Committee, since that is where the bill’s final shape will be decided.