FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 5, 2026
Contact: Ashwin Verghese, Communications Director, [email protected], 508-263-0289
Statement on Senate Commerce Committee Approving KOSA
Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin released the following statement today:
“The Senate version of KOSA is the most protective, popular, and bipartisan of all children’s online safety legislation under consideration. It would be the most important new law to protect kids online in nearly 30 years. And thanks to today’s Senate Commerce Committee markup, it is now one big step closer to finally giving our children the safer online platforms they deserve.
“Fairplay thanks Sens. Cruz and Cantwell for making KOSA a priority at today’s markup, and Sens. Blackburn and Blumenthal for their incredible leadership on this bill over the past four years. We are also profoundly grateful to our amazing partners in ParentsSOS, the inspiring network of survivor parents who have played the leading role in getting KOSA this to point.
“While there are important differences between the Senate and House versions of KOSA, the bill’s success in both chambers shows that our leaders in Congress agree far more than they disagree when it comes to kids’ online safety — including that states should be able to continue to pass and enforce their own laws.
“We call on leaders in both chambers to work together to pass the strongest possible version of KOSA this year.
“We are also pleased to see the Committee advance both the Youth AI Privacy Act and the CHATBOT Act. The danger AI chatbots pose to children and teens is a growing crisis. These bills would add deeply needed protections to help mitigate chatbot harms, including strong default settings for long-term memory use, a ban on advertising to minors through a chatbot, a ban on using the data of minors to train AI models, and prohibitions on features that cause compulsive use. Still, there is much work to be done to ensure that the strongest possible chatbot protections are signed into law. We look forward to working with Congressional leaders to ensure that strong, baseline safety-by-design requirements are included moving forward.”
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About Fairplay
Fairplay is the leading nonprofit committed to helping children thrive in an increasingly commercialized, screen-obsessed culture, and the only organization dedicated to ending marketing to children. Fairplay works to enhance children’s well-being by eliminating the exploitative and harmful business practices of marketers and Big Tech. Learn more at www.fairplayforkids.org.