Two of President-elect Donald Trump’s closest confidantes have endorsed bipartisan legislation designed to increase guardrails for children online.
Billionaire Elon Musk and Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., threw their weight behind the Kids Online Safety Act over the weekend after Musk’s X negotiated tweaks to the legislation to ensure it protects free speech.
“Protecting kids should always be priority #1,” Musk said on X, replying to X CEO Linda Yaccarino’s endorsement of the bill.
Musk, the world’s richest man, poured at least $120 million into electing Trump and routinely touts Trump to his 200 million X followers. He and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Trump’s presidential advisory commission for identifying government waste and needless regulation.
“After working with the bill authors, I’m proud to share that we’ve made progress to further protect freedom of speech while maintaining safety for minors online,” Yaccarino said.
“We urge Congress and the House to pass the Kids Online Safety Act this year.”
Trump Jr., an increasingly influential conservative activist and adviser to his father, also chimed in and pressed House Republicans to get the legislation over the finish line.
“We can protect free speech and our kids at the same time from Big Tech. It’s time for House Republicans to pass the Kids Online Safety Act ASAP,” Trump Jr. asserted.
Senators Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) authored the Kids Online Safety Act and have spent years advocating for it. The legislation easily passed the Senate earlier this year but faced roadblocks in the House, in part because of concerns about the possibility it could be used to censor speech online.
“Led by X, the new changes made to the Kids Online Safety Act strengthen the bill while safeguarding free speech online and ensuring it is not used to stifle expression,” the Senators said in a joint statement.
“These changes should eliminate once and for all the false narrative that this bill would be weaponized by unelected bureaucrats to censor Americans. We thank Elon and Linda for their bold leadership and commitment to protecting children online and for helping us get this bill across the finish line this Congress.”
The tech industry has attempted to sink the legislation by emphasizing cultural issues and fears that certain positions on LGBT issues and abortion might be suppressed if the bill becomes law, the Wall Street Journal reported. Lobbyists representing the tech industry have suggested to liberal lawmakers that minors identifying as LGBT could be censored, while warning conservatives that pro-life viewpoints could be suppressed.
The Kids Online Safety Act has gained substantial momentum because of the harrowing stories of parents whose children suffered severe mental health issues from using social media platforms and later committed suicide.
With that in mind, the legislation would regulate certain features available to kids and give platforms a “duty of care” to address the addictive nature of social media algorithms. A growing amount of research from the U.S. and across the world has linked social media to the surge in anxiety and depression among teenagers over the past decade.
Numerous conservative organizations have endorsed the Kids Online Safety Act, as have prominent Senators on both sides of the aisle. Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) and ranking member Ted Cruz (R., Texas) wrote a letter last week urging House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and Steve Scalise (R., La.) to support the bill.