ICYMI OP-ED: The Voices Behind the Kids Online Safety Act: Princess Abary from California

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – The bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, led by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), is strongly supported by a broad coalition of parents who have tragically lost their children or whose kids have been severely harmed by Big Tech, young people who want to regain control over their online lives, and experts and advocates who study and see the negative effects of social media firsthand in their communities. The “Voices Behind the Kids Online Safety Act” series will amplify their stories as they call on Congress to pass the legislation to help protect themselves online and to hold Big Tech accountable. The bill has the support of nearly half of the U.S. Senate.

Princess Abary, California

Read Princess’s full op-ed for the Bakersfield Californian HERE and below

“I find myself spiraling down rabbit holes that harm my mental health and are being driven by the platforms’ algorithms. I use the tools available to me. I use the “Do Not Suggest” feature and the endless supply of eating disorder and hateful content in my feed never seems to stop. Why is that? Because Big Tech refuses to prioritize the care of its users over its bottom line,” wrote Princess in her op-ed.

“As a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, it comes as no surprise that our community's children and teens are exposed to cyberbullying and harassment online at significantly higher rates. As a result, we are left increasingly more vulnerable to stalking, sexual exploitation, eating disorders, substance abuse and suicidal ideation. The statistics behind this trend paint an even more somber picture.”

“We need to find a way to balance the rights of free expression and information with the need to protect vulnerable individuals. It is a complex and nuanced challenge, but against the stark reality that so many of us face every day, we need to make solving it a top priority,” Princess continued.

“That’s where the updated version of the Kids Online Safety Act comes in — threading the needle between protecting users and preserving freedom of expression.”

Blumenthal and Blackburn are the lead sponsors of the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, which would provide kids and parents with better tools to protect themselves online, hold Big Tech accountable for harms to kids, and provide transparency into black box algorithms.

Read Princess’s full op-ed below:

“Generation Z, parents, educators, health professionals and the U.S. surgeon general all agree: We are in the middle of a youth mental crisis, and Big Tech is to blame.

Companies like Google, TikTok and Meta are flooding the airwaves with reasons why we can’t pass reasonable safety measures for children and teens online, and what’s often missing from the policy debate in the hall of Congress? Voices from my generation about why we need to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, to prevent Big Tech and their algorithms from continuing to do irreparable harm to younger Americans by pushing content that makes us depressed, feel othered and develop unhealthy relationships with our bodies.

Today, being a teenager goes hand in hand with near-constant scrolling through TikTok or Instagram — digesting whatever their curated algorithms suggest. To us, social media encompasses much more than just keeping up with friends and trends.

Big Tech is everywhere all at once. The platforms are constantly mining our data to maximize screen time to sell us more things. That often entails sending us content that attacks our mental health, which puts LGBTQ+ folks and eating disorder survivors like me in an even more vulnerable position.

I find myself spiraling down rabbit holes that harm my mental health and are being driven by the platforms’ algorithms. I use the tools available to me. I use the “Do Not Suggest” feature and the endless supply of eating disorder and hateful content in my feed never seems to stop. Why is that? Because Big Tech refuses to prioritize the care of its users over its bottom line.

As a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, it comes as no surprise that our community's children and teens are exposed to cyberbullying and harassment online at significantly higher rates. As a result, we are left increasingly more vulnerable to stalking, sexual exploitation, eating disorders, substance abuse and suicidal ideation. The statistics behind this trend paint an even more somber picture.

Recent studies have proved an astounding 42% of LGBTQ+ youth have seriously considered a suicide attempt, and 1 in 3 young LGBTQ+ people have been sexually harassed online.

According to a Media Matters study, for every positive interaction from a queer source, there were four negative interactions from right-wing, bigoted sources. Recently, GLAAD released a social media scorecard showing how the platforms expose LGBTQ+ youth, specifically trans youth, to harassment campaigns.

As a survivor of both anorexia and bulimia, I’ve experienced trauma at the hands of social media platforms and been rocked as I’ve seen loved ones — far too young — fall into the same unhealthy patterns of behavior.

According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, TikTok began recommending eating disorder content within eight minutes of creating a new account and Instagram was found to deluge a new user with eating disorder recommendations within a day. The same organization found the creation of a new teen account on TikTok resulted in the recommendation of suicidal content in under three minutes.

I’ve seen this dynamic play out in tragic ways. My 10-year-old cousin developed an eating disorder after being on the receiving end of a near-relentless barrage of toxic content that reinforces negative body comparisons. Developing and impressionable minds should not be exposed to content that they cannot yet process.

We are real people. My story and my cousin’s are painful, personal and not unique to just us. My experience should force lawmakers to realize that you cannot have both unlimited freedom and safety.

We need to find a way to balance the rights of free expression and information with the need to protect vulnerable individuals. It is a complex and nuanced challenge, but against the stark reality that so many of us face every day, we need to make solving it a top priority.

That’s where the updated version of the Kids Online Safety Act comes in — threading the needle between protecting users and preserving freedom of expression.

If passed, KOSA would put the onus on social media platforms to protect their younger users — rather than blaming minors and their parents for algorithms they cannot control or have no ability to shape. The bill would also require platforms to offer users the option to turn off engagement-based algorithms, restrict messages, create a private profile and create a point of contact for users to report harassment, and the updated duty of care would also require covered platforms to rethink how their algorithms promote negative behaviors such as suicide and suicidal behaviors.

Revisions also clarify the duty of care section so that it uses explicit terms like sexual exploitation, abuse and physical violence (rather than vague or opaque terms). Additionally, the new changes continue to allow access to sexual health information by exempting schools and nonprofit organizations from the bill.

The updated version of KOSA has helped put many at ease about the true intentions of the bill and is thoughtfully informed by diverse perspectives, including input from the LGBTQ+ community, which is why organizations like GLAAD, HRC and PFLAG have dropped their opposition to the bill.

All of these requirements work together to create a safe environment for every user on the platform to mitigate the risk of cyberbullying, harassment, suicidal ideation, sexual exploitation and eating disorder behaviors.

I hope lawmakers will listen to the experiences of people in my generation because we have lived in, been raised by and suffered consequences at the hands of unregulated social media.

In a perfect world, there is a foolproof way to prevent every negative interaction online. We don’t live in that world, but KOSA offers up a beacon of hope and can take us one step closer to finally creating the digital space young people deserve.”

Princess Abary is a 17-year-old senior at Stockdale High School where she advocates against sexual assault and for mental health awareness both on an off campus. She writes poetry and contributes to her local magazine in hopes of drawing attention to overlooked topics in her community.

-30-