WASHINGTON, D.C. – SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), a Minnesota-based national suicide prevention nonprofit, today welcomed U.S. House passage of the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act (KIDS Act, H.R. 7757) by a bipartisan vote of 267 to 117 and called on the U.S. Senate to act without delay on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA, S. 1748).
“Today the House did something Washington too rarely does. Republicans and Democrats set their differences aside and acted together to protect children,” said Erich Mische, CEO of SAVE. “We thank Chairman Brett Guthrie and Ranking Member Frank Pallone for the bipartisan work that brought the KIDS Act to the floor and carried it across. This is real progress, and it is proof that protecting kids online does not belong to one party.”
SAVE has said consistently that the path to the strongest possible protections runs through the process, with both chambers doing the hard work together. Today’s vote is a meaningful step on that path. It is not the finish line. The strongest protections for our children must survive in the final bill, including holding platforms accountable for the harms their products are designed to cause.
“The House has acted. Now the Senate must answer,” Mische said. “Seventy-seven senators, more than three-quarters of the United States Senate, are already behind the Kids Online Safety Act. That is not a coalition that needs convincing. It is a mandate waiting to be honored. We call on the Senate Commerce Committee to mark up KOSA, and on Senate leadership to bring it to the floor for a vote.”
SAVE exists to prevent suicide. We are in this fight because the harms engineered into these platforms are costing young lives. Every day that passes without action, more children die by suicide, and more families are left to grieve. The country has waited long enough.
“We will not stop, and we will not do this alone,” Mische said. “SAVE is committed to working with parents, advocacy groups, and everyone who shares this fight to ensure the strongest version of a kids online safety bill is passed and signed into law.”
KOSA. Mark it. Pass it. Sign it.
About SAVE
SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) is a Minnesota-based national suicide prevention nonprofit. Founded in 1989, SAVE was among the first organizations in the nation dedicated to the prevention of suicide. SAVE works to prevent suicide through public awareness and education, to reduce stigma, and to serve as a resource to those touched by suicide, turning awareness into action and action into hope. Learn more at save.org.