WASHINGTON D.C. – The Senate has passed two bills with overwhelming bipartisan support to protect children online. These bills will force social media platforms and other internet companies to enact measures to limit children from some of the dangers inherent to these online platforms.
The first of the bills, KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act), enacts a “duty of care” standard for internet companies, introducing a legal liability for any company that would recommend content to a child that could reasonably cause mental harm. The other bill, COPRA 2.0 (Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act), extends existing restrictions for internet companies looking to collect private information from children.
While lawmakers have unanimously accepted COPRA 2.0, KOSA has recently faced more controversy. Supporters of KOSA point to concerning trends in childhood development linked to online usage. Depression, eating disorders, pornography use, and suicidal ideation have all risen among adolescents. Many see a clear link between harmful online usage and these mental health concerns.
Detractors have apprehensions over free speech and privacy concerns. They say KOSA would allow unaccountable bureaucratic bodies like the FTC enormous censoring powers over online companies. Whether KOSA is the best way for the government to protect children online while upholding constitutional principles is yet to be seen. While both sides of the debate seem to have legitimate concerns and arguments, it is now clear that KOSA’s supporters outweigh its detractors.
The House must still vote on the bills. The House is recessed until September, but Speaker Mike Johnson has signaled his support for the legislation. The cultural momentum is favorable for its passage, and there is little doubt that the bipartisan weight behind the bills will help push them through the House.
Depression, eating disorders, pornography use, and suicidal ideation have all risen among adolescents. Many see a clear link between harmful online usage and these mental health concerns.
That such broad support was easily garnered in a Senate split harshly against party lines hints at a significant issue in our culture today: the government must step in to protect children because parents are not guarding their children’s online activity. If most parents restricted or protected their children’s use of dangerous technology, the Senate would likely not have seen the need to pass these bills.
Undoubtedly, the government is responsible for protecting children from dangers online if they are not being protected otherwise. Christians have historically understood the protection of children to be an essential role of a righteous society. The early Church took it upon herself to protect the innocent, even during harsh persecution. As the Roman Empire became more Christian, government legislation began to reflect the social values of the Church.
For example, it was a common practice for the ancient Romans to discard unwanted children in a public place for others to do with them as they please, either to show pity or to raise them for future profit as slaves. Justin indicated that these abandoned children were often raised for sex slavery and expressed the revulsion Christians had for such a terrible practice,
“But as for us, lest we should do any injustice or impiety, we have been taught that to expose newly born infants is the work of wicked people; firstly because we see that almost all those exposed, not only the girls but also the boys, are growing up to prostitution.”1
The early Church was not shy about inserting itself into the social issues of its time. Christians began rescuing and raising these unwanted children. Over time, as the Roman Empire accepted Christianity, the government passed laws protecting the rights of abandoned children.2 By its patient influence, the early Church transformed the entire social structure of the world. The modern Church will continue to do the same.
The Shepherd of Hermes was a popular book in the ancient Church and was likely written sometime in the second century AD. It is a narrative work with Hermes, the writer, as the protagonist. The first line of the book indicates that Hermes was one of those abandoned children who was raised to be sold into slavery, “He who had brought me up, sold me to one Rhode in Rome.”3
Yet, though Hermes may have had such a storied background, as a grown man and the head of his household, he is rebuked for the disobedience and disorder of his children,
“But God is not angry with you on account of this, but that you may convert your house, which have committed iniquity against the Lord, and against you, their parents. And although you love your sons, yet did you not warn your house, but permitted them to be terribly corrupted [emphasis mine]…. Cease not therefore to admonish your sons; for I know that, if they will repent with all their heart, they will be enrolled in the Books of Life with the saints.”4
The matter is conclusive: the online world is a dangerous place. Today’s parents can no longer blame ignorance—they have all been exposed to the hazards of the internet. Nor is it wise to trust children to make the right decisions for themselves. Parents pass their sinful nature to their children, and this nature contains a crafty intelligence that often deceives the very same parents when children are given too many liberties too quickly.
Instead, today’s parents should learn from the rebuke of Hermes. Parents are the primary guardians of their children’s purity and safety. While the government may have a role to play in providing a general culture of safety and in picking up the slack when the family structure fails, parents should not rely on the government for the daily well-being of their children, nor should they place their hope in legislation. The government will never be able to replace the virtue a godly family can provide. Regardless of the mistakes made by their parents or the pressure from the surrounding culture, Christians today must take personal responsibility for protecting their children from evil and guiding them to God.
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St. Justin Martyr, St. Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies, ed. Walter J. Burghardt et al., trans. Leslie William Barnard, vol. 56, Ancient Christian Writers (New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1997), 41.
Gaspar Ladocsi, “Child,” ed. Angelo Di Berardino and James Hoover, trans. Joseph T. Papa, Erik A. Koenke, and Eric E. Hewett, Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic; InterVarsity Press, 2014), 499.
Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., “The Pastor of Hermas,” in Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), trans. F. Crombie, vol. 2, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 9.
ibid, 10.