Social media is killing children, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, is refusing to meet with their grieving parents to pass legislative safeguards to protect other kids. Each day the speaker refuses to act is another day that more kids could meet the same fate as Nylah Anderson, a 10-year-old from Pennsylvania, who died after she decided to try a choke challenge that a TikTok algorithm recommended to her on its “For You” feed, or Carson Bride, a 16-year-old from Oregon, who died by suicide after classmates incessantly bullied him anonymously over Snapchat and other instant messaging apps. While their stories are some of the most notorious, they are far from alone, with a 2023 survey showing that one in three teenage girls had recently considered suicide.
Yet, Speaker Johnson recently called the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) — the most promising path to curbing the harms of social media on young people — “very problematic” just a few short weeks before a new Meta artificial intelligence center was announced in his district. The connection between these two events is potentially notable given that the Senate passed the bill in a nearly unprecedented 91-3 vote in July and given public opinion on this issue is nearly unanimous. A recent poll by Issue One, ParentsSOS, and Fairplay found that nearly nine in 10 Americans across party lines said that Congress should pass laws to protect kids’ online safety, a level of support well above that for regulating or prohibiting similarly dangerous tobacco products. Donald Trump Jr. on Sunday called on the House to take up the stalled Senate bill and Trump’s incoming vice president, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan legislation.
While Speaker Johnson issued a statement on Monday saying he looks forward to “working with the Trump Administration to get the right bill into law,” he hesitated to echo an endorsement of the legislation from Trump ally Elon Musk. "There's still some concern about the free speech components of that, and whether it might lead to further censorship by the government of valid, you know, conservative voices, for example. So we're working through all that," Johnson told reporters Monday.
Johnson’s resistance looks like cooperation with Big Tech to actively conceal information about how much their addictive products hurt young people like Big Tobacco has done with nicotine products for decades. Just like with tobacco, we believe that the industry’s lobbyists are whispering into the ears of House leadership to block the popular and meaningful safeguards included in KOSA. We implore that House leadership instead prioritize kids over tech companies’ money. The House should work with the Senate to include this bill in a must-pass package before the end of the year and do what is right for our children and our democracy.
Issue One’s latest Big Tech lobbying report reveals that the industry is desperately trying to preserve a status quo where they can’t be held accountable. As of October, they had spent more than $51 million on lobbying, with Meta deploying one lobbyist for every eight members of Congress and ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) deploying one lobbyist for every 10. Following public scrutiny over their continued deception and lack of transparency, these two companies spent more on lobbying in the first nine months of 2024 than any other year since they began employing lobbyists.
These lobbying efforts have been tailored to target both Democrats and Republicans. The platforms have told the left that KOSA will harm vulnerable LGBTQ+ communities, while simultaneously advancing censorship concerns that resonate with the right. These are many of the same talking points that they deployed to thwart the American Privacy Rights Act (H.R. 8818) earlier this year, in some cases copy-pasted word for word, and they highlight the power and influence these multibillion-dollar companies have in Washington.
Make no mistake: The social media platforms will spare no expense to block reasonable safeguards that will protect users, even those supported by a broad bipartisan coalition of policymakers and the public. The fact that Big Tech can thwart legislation with near universal support gives the impression that Congress works on behalf of wealthy special interests, not voters.
Beyond their immense lobbying power in Washington, tech companies continue to use other tools to stifle commonsense guardrails. They have sued to try to block basic protections for children in state after state across the country. They offer false promises and gimmicky new product designs in a cynical attempt to show lawmakers they have the best interest of children at heart. Notably, these attempts often come just before congressional scrutiny. It is because these companies think that if one reform passes, more will follow. This will eventually result in a new paradigm that favors consumers and protects children over tech companies’ profits.
Big Tech’s products are addictive and dangerous. They are taking the lives of children like Anderson and Bride, leaving irreplaceable holes in our families and communities. No matter what they say publicly, these companies will always prioritize their profits above Americans’ health and safety. We hope Speaker Johnson will reconsider his position on KOSA and allow it to be included in a must-pass package to start establishing a national baseline for regulating tech companies and holding them accountable for the harms that they have caused. Our children deserve better.
