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Do Online Safety Acts Really Keep Online Spaces Safe?

  • Christabel Ashun
  • Dec 3, 2025
  • 3 min read
By: Christabel Ashun


Over the summer of 2025, the U.K. came under fire on social media due to its implementation of its new Online Safety Act. Under this act, Social Media companies are required to use strict age verification via methods such as Facial Age Estimation or Photo Identification. Supposedly, to prevent children from accessing harmful content. If not, the Social Media companies will face heavy fines of up to 10% of their global revenue. 


However, there’s one big issue: Who decides which content counts as harmful?


The American KOSA Act (KOSA), initially introduced by the Heritage Foundation, also known as the association behind Project 2025, which restricts abortion access, raises the same concerns about children witnessing these instances of harmful content open to a minor's eyes.


Although these bills sound good for protecting children on paper, there has been some serious criticism regarding what the bill truly seeks and intend to do. One of the most common criticisms is that these bills are thinly veiled censorship. The government holds too much power in deciding what’s harmful to children and can easily restrict people who are in vulnerable positions. This includes children, disabled people, those reliant on access to support groups, forums, etc, if they are deemed harmful by the current government's beliefs. The political motivation for this isn't subtle either. The Heritage Foundation, which is responsible for the KOSAact, then tweeted — “keeping trans content away from children is protecting kids,” Leading on to an added article titled, “How Big Tech Turns Kids Trans” at the end of their tweet thread. This led many to speculate that these specific bills intend to restrict LGBTQIA+ content from children. Such speculations like these were then further solidified when an interviewer asked Marsha Blackburn, the author of KOSA, what she believes conservatives should be taking top action on. Blackburn responded, “protecting minor children from the transgender and this culture and that influence.” Blackburn also refers to social media as places “where children are being indoctrinated”. 


All in all, there are many warnings about how damaging social media is from organizations like the Heritage Foundation or the United States Surgeon General, yet there's barely any evidence to substantiate such claims. The effect social media has varies greatly on the user and what they're already exposed to in real life. Social media usage can increase both moods of happiness and depression, according to Project Awesome. According to the ADA, Social Media is not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people. These Online Safety Acts won't protect children when any type of content can be considered “harmful”! It's clear that KOSA is simply meant to restrict children from accessing content that goes against the Heritage Foundation's beliefs, such as LGBTQIA resources or anything that doesn't fall under their traditionalist values.





BIBLIOGRAPHY:

LBC. “What Is the Online Safety Act? | LBC Explains.” YouTube, 10 Mar. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1jf2dAtwrA.

‌Taylor Lorenz. “KOSA Will Censor the Internet.” YouTube, 30 May 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bj2B32R7Fk. Accessed 2 Dec. 2025.

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“Reddit - the Heart of the Internet.” Reddit.com, Aug 2025, www.reddit.com/r/SocialistGaming/comments/1m8a1re/how_does_payment_processor_censorship/. Accessed 2 Dec. 2025.

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‌TLDR News. “Has the Online Safety Act Backfired?” YouTube, 16 Aug. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ajs_oGpkO0.

‌Taylor Lorenz. “KOSA Will Censor the Internet.” YouTube, 30 May 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bj2B32R7Fk.

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