Press Release  AG Campbell Joins Multistate Coalition Urging Congress To Pass Kids Online Safety Act

BOSTON — Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has joined a coalition of 31 other states in calling upon Congressional leadership to pass the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (“KOSA”) before the end of the year. This legislation is a crucial tool to protect children from online harm. In a letter, the coalition emphasized the urgent need to address the growing crisis of youth mental health linked to social media use, with studies showing many minors spend more than five hours online each day.

The attorneys general highlighted several key provisions of KOSA that would enhance online protections for minors: 

• Mandatory default safety settings: Requiring platforms to automatically enable their strongest safety protections for minors rather than burying these features behind opt-in screens;
• Addiction prevention: Allowing young users and their parents to disable manipulative design features and algorithmic recommendations that keep children endlessly scrolling;
• Parental empowerment: Providing parents with new tools to identify harmful behaviors and improved capabilities to report dangerous content. 

This push for federal legislation comes as many state attorneys general offices, including Massachusetts, have launched investigations and lawsuits against major social media platforms like Meta and TikTok for their targeting of underage users. In October 2023, AG Campbell filed a lawsuit against Meta and Instagram for unfair and deceptive practices, and in October 2024, she filed a lawsuit against TikTok for similarly harming and addicting young users.  

Joining Massachusetts in signing the letter, led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, were the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming. 

The letter can be viewed here. 

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