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What's KOSA?
KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act) is an bill currently making it's way through our government. It's basically going to enforce how Youtube is acting with weird age verification onto all your favorite websites! Plus it could be used to restrict your freedom of speech! Especially by the right wing partisan (one partied) Republican FTC!
Getting started
First, check out this site and sign the petition!
This petition has already proved to have the balls to contact your senators on your behalf!
I know that because I got an unexpected email from my Representative.
It also can help with calls towards your Reps! (as well as explaining in a much better way than me.)
Representatives are not the only ones to be calling.
KOSA should be brought up with your Senators!
Calling your Senators
But what happens when you call?
In my experience, it will either be an automated process or an assistant!
Be clear, concise, but be polite.
You're probably nervous, I was too. I might have been a total trainwreck on the phone.
But remember that you're not alone in this fight, and remember what you're fighting for!
Don't let that not alone mentality and your anxiety twist into "someone else will do it" though, that's the kind of mentality that stops these resistance movements in their tracks.
Now. for Scripts. 5calls will provide you with one, but Tumblr users have also been very gracious as to provide theirs.
Here's my final script:
Good Morning, my name is <name here>, I am a <town> <state> constituent, zip code <zip code>
I am calling to urgently ask Senator <Senator's Name> to reject and oppose the Kids Online Safety Act, also known as KOSA or S.1748.
The bill has received some promising revisions. However, it would still cause major breaches in privacy and enable policing of what is said on the internet. This could also lead to resources for minority communities to become even more limited, as right wing conservatives use this act to police freedom of speech on the internet.
This can happen because KOSA would require users to verify their age by providing their ID, even on innocuous websites like Youtube, Facebook, etc. This means a private third party would have access to our sensitive personal information, that they could buy and sell online, and hand over to hate groups.
Additionally having our IDs linked to the accounts we use online could exponentially decrease freedom of speech on the internet.
As an adult who strongly believes in equality and safety, I believe that I should not have to open myself up to these risks. The best action we could take to protect children on the internet is to ensure parents are responsible about what their younger kids see online.
Similar policies to KOSA have also been enacted in the United Kingdom and have faced backlash from the public and even our right wing president. We have a much larger population in here in the united states, which would mean wider scale unrest.
I hope that <Senator's Name> fights to oppose KOSA and similar acts like s.737 SCREEN to keep our internet safe for all.
Thank you for your time, and have a great day.
Have a senator that cosponsored the KOSA bill? You can find out here!
Depending on if you get an automated call or not, you may not be able to say everything you want to say.
Wait, SCREEN?
Yep. There are multiple acts like KOSA seeking to all do the same thing!
Learn about it, and what to say to your Reps and Senators today!
This is bad. I can't lie to you. But we out number the people trying to force this onto us.
We can make a difference, if, and only if, we stick together and keep moving for a brighter day.
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