Favorite Late last week, the Senate released yet another version of the Kids Online Safety Act, written, reportedly, with the assistance of X CEO Linda Yaccarino in a flawed attempt to address the critical free speech issues inherent in the bill. This last minute draft remains, at its core, an unconstitutional censorship bill that threatens…
All posts tagged Student Privacy
How to Stop Advertisers From Tracking Your Teen Across the Internet
Favorite This post was written by EFF fellow Miranda McClellan. Teens between the ages of 13 and 17 are being tracked across the internet using identifiers known as Advertising IDs. When children turn 13, they age out of the data protections provided by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Then, they become targets for…
The New U.S. House Version of KOSA Doesn’t Fix Its Biggest Problems
Favorite An amended version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) that is being considered this week in the U.S. House is still a dangerous online censorship bill that contains many of the same fundamental problems of a similar version the Senate passed in July. The changes to the House bill do not alter that…
School Monitoring Software Sacrifices Student Privacy for Unproven Promises of Safety
Favorite Imagine your search terms, key-strokes, private chats and photographs are being monitored every time they are sent. Millions of students across the country don’t have to imagine this deep surveillance of their most private communications: it’s a reality that comes with their school districts’ decision to install AI-powered monitoring software such as Gaggle and…
Surveillance Defense for Campus Protests
Favorite The recent wave of protests calling for peace in Palestine have been met with unwarranted and aggressive suppression from law enforcement, universities, and other bad actors. It’s clear that the changing role of surveillance on college campuses exacerbates the dangers faced by all of the communities colleges are meant to support, and only serves…
Thousands of Young People Told Us Why the Kids Online Safety Act Will Be Harmful to Minors
Favorite With KOSA passed, the information i can access as a minor will be limited and censored, under the guise of “protecting me”, which is the responsibility of my parents, NOT the government. I have learned so much about the world and about myself through social media, and without the diverse world i have seen,…
Analyzing KOSA’s Constitutional Problems In Depth
Favorite Why EFF Does Not Think Recent Changes Ameliorate KOSA’s Censorship The latest version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) did not change our critical view of the legislation. The changes have led some organizations to drop their opposition to the bill, but we still believe it is a dangerous and unconstitutional censorship bill…
Don’t Fall for the Latest Changes to the Dangerous Kids Online Safety Act
Favorite The authors of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) unveiled an amended version this week, but it’s still an unconstitutional censorship bill that continues to empower state officials to target services and online content they do not like. We are asking everyone reading this to oppose this latest version, and to demand that…
Protecting Students from Faulty Software and Legislation: 2023 Year in Review
Favorite Lawmakers, schools districts, educational technology companies and others keep rolling out legislation and software that threatens students’ privacy, free speech, and access to social media, in the name of “protecting” children. At EFF, we fought back against this overreach and demand accountability and transparency. Bad bills and invasive monitoring systems, though sometimes well-meaning, hurt students rather…
The Eyes on the Board Act Is Yet Another Misguided Attempt to Limit Social Media for Teens
Favorite Young people’s access to social media continues to be under attack by overreaching politicians. The latest effort, Senator Ted Cruz’s blunt “Eyes on the Board” Act, aims to end social media’s use entirely in schools. This heavy-handed plan to cut federal funding to any school that doesn’t block all social media platforms may have…