Constitutional Opinion No. 2026-0677

Case Information

Content Scored

S. 1748 (119th) — Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA): platform duty of care, design safeguards, parental tools

Source

U.S. Congress (govinfo.gov)

Author

Sens. Blackburn, Blumenthal, Thune, Schumer

Publication Date

2025-05-14

Content Type

Legislation

Opinion Issued

2026-07-19

AFCS Version

1.0

URL

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1748↗

Holding

KOSA imposes on covered online platforms a duty of care to prevent/mitigate enumerated harms to minors via design features, requires default-most-protective safeguards and parental control tools, and mandates transparency reporting (FTC + state-AG enforcement, except the duty of care). It sits at the intersection of two AFCS commitments in tension. It advances the Integrity of the Family (Article IV, 72) by giving parents real controls, and the Safety of the Citizen (Article XVIII, 68) by targeting genuine harms to minors. But it engages Free Speech (Article VII, weight 10, scored 40) — a duty of care over design features tied to psychological harms risks censorship-by-proxy and a chilling effect on lawful speech, the reason many principled America First voices oppose it. The 2025 text's mitigations (explicit bar on viewpoint-based enforcement, design-not-content focus, no state-AG enforcement of the duty of care, Section 230 preserved, no age-verification mandate) keep the concern moderate, not severe, and — critically — mean NO Automatic Fail: the universal-censorship trigger requires explicit advocacy (Rule 6), and KOSA expressly disclaims viewpoint-based enforcement. Regulatory burden on platforms engages Article IX (50). Tier 1 = 57; under 85/15 the result is 62 — low Mostly America First: family/safety alignment slightly outweighs the free-speech and regulatory costs. (Default 70/30 would have returned 67.)