So I’m considered the target audience for KOSA, being a kid and all, and I just want to say that this will not protect the youth at all. It’s blatant censorship and many kids and teens have spoken against it, and many more live in fear that this will be passed. KOSA will negatively affect impact LGBTQ youth, those in abusive situations, and the youth in general. The people pushing for this bill to be passed do not care about kids at all, they just want to use kids as a way to censor topics that oppose their beliefs. It’s not fair and will result in more harm than good. Children will die from this. I agree that children should be kept safe on the internet, but removing them entirely doesn’t teach them anything. Why not do something about the predators online who are actively targeting kids? It’s better to teach children how to properly keep themselves safe on the internet, rather than not teaching them at all and making life extremely difficult for them when they’re older. Also, this impression that LGBTQ media will influence your kids to be gay is extremely false. LGBTQ media can help them discover who they are and teach them that they’re not alone. If you take that from them they’ll feel different and isolated from their peers and they’ll blame themselves for it. KOSA will do more harm than good and is blatant censorship. Shame on the people who are pushing for it and putting lives in danger.

I would be completely alone and scared if I didn't have an online community of people who saw and understood me for who I was at a young age. If KOSA passed for me when I was a child, I would not know who I am or what I like. I would be completely lost, as I was better at making online friends than friends in real life, especially being on the spectrum and in the LGBT+ community. Should I have grown up without my friends? Should other kids like me grow up without their friends? No. The way to protect kids is not to take away a space where they can excercise autonomy, self-discipline, and creative and social freedom. The way to protect kids is to educate them on consent and self-love, to give them their own spaces to be themselves, and to give them privacy. Do you not remember how valued privacy was when you were a teenager? Children need space to grow and make mistakes. KOSA will invade this space, and will stunt the growth and happiness of children and is not worth it. Invest in long time solutions! Kids are worth the time it takes to learn how to be both safe and free on their own. Foster that growth instead of bad bills like KOSA.

first amendment should apply to the internet as well, there is no reason for this restriction to be put in place other then to weaponize these laws against minorities such as the LGBT+.

Being able to find a community online when there isn't one where you are helps you make connections and learn more about said community and where you fit in it.

I am queer, and my friends are queer. We don't want to be censored in a fake fight for safety.

The internet saved my life by providing me with a support system when I had nobody else due to being raised in a cult.

The internet has been an incredible resource for me as an LGBTQ teenager, and without it I would have felt isolated and not have known how to describe my feelings or ask for help. I want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to access these resources and know they are not alone.

KOSA will limit the way we the people can express ourselves. It’s a way for the government to control the masses. We are sick of being told to fit into a palatable mold. Leave us alone. Don’t lie about caring for kids safety. If you really did, we wouldn’t be having school shootings every day.

Every child needs a space to grow and be them to obtain a good healthy balance . In a world where we no longer have a third space where kids can just be , the internet is that space. Kosa is not a bill that'll save kids it only controls and diminishes the freedom a person can have based on another person of government body's feelings on the matter

I’m a closeted youth whose parents are hardcore Mormon. If I lose these resources then I lose a part of myself.

Because our politicians should not be able to further invade the privacy of their constituents, especially when many people are already suffering from politicians monitoring what we do/ say, for example the fact that student encampments were violently attacked by police and harassed for protesting against genocide, and bills are currently trying to be be passed to ban masks at places like campuses so schools can further “punish” students that don’t comply.

I care about stopping KOSA and preserving online LGBTQ+ resources because these sites meant to educate and provide a sense of community are life saving to those children in areas where they cannot get that kind of information on their identities or the necessary healthcare for their queer needs, as well as find people with similar experiences they can relate to and get advice from. If KOSA passes and made into law, I foresee hundreds, if not thousands, of queer youths feeling all the more isolated and confused about who they are. The mental health impact of this unconstitutional bill alone is enough to want to vehemently oppose it.

I am a queer teen, and I want to have a safe future online for me and my community.

As a sexuality educator, I know how important it is for kids to have access to accurate information and to build connections and safe communities on-line. Preserve access to information to keep them safe and healthy.

It harms youth in abusive situations by cutting them off from online support and community, which in many cases is all the support and community they can get. It prevents youth from accessing news and life-saving health information.

KOSA would not help kids. Instead, it would put everyone's information at risk and take away safe spaces for LGBTQ youth.

I care because as I was once an LGBTQ Youth myself, it's imperative to have these resources openly available for youth to access.

I want those youth to have the ability to have the information freely and openly without living in fear of asking questions about themselves or fear of not knowing answers they seek, and that help friends and resources are available to them.

The Internet provides so many LGBTQ resources that many of us can't access in person and KOSA would actually make us less safe due to censorship and privacy invasion.

The precedent this law would set is too great a risk to the stability of our democracy to be allowed to pass. This law has failed multiple times for a reason. The law is ill-defined, and would introduce a way to censor LGBT content online, and introduce new avenues of surveillance. KOSA is a step in the wrong direction.

By passing KOSA the government is saying that LGBTQ youth isn't worth protecting.

Sometimes the internet is the only way to find community or to learn the language to explain your experience.

It would directly hurt me as I am a LGBTQ youth and I believe information should never be censored

Because we deserve a free open internet that isn’t being surveilled, segmented, and censored by faceless corporations and a disconnected government that doesn’t understand anything about it.

Because U.S politics affects the whole world. Most websites have their main offices in America. Legalizing KOSA won't just harm american kids, but every child in the world with access to the internet.

Every individual has the right to resources that inform and guide them on matters that concern themselves and the history of people like them. KOSA would ruin the ability to obtain needed information and would suppress the voices of hundreds of thousands of people. This is not the freedom and liberty America was founded on.

I don’t want resources to be censored

because spaces are so so limited. Let us keep this.

It will cause so much harm for young LGBTQ people

I didn't realize I was queer until I was in college, and part of what helped me figure myself out were online resources. Now that I'm in my 30s, I want LGBTQ youth to not have the period of confusion I had nor the isolation growing up. We have to support the children of America, not just a select few that the MAGA crowd cares about, and make sure they feel safe until they are old enough to be independent adults.

If KOSA is passed, it will be detrimental to queer youth who are trying to find themselves and their place in their community, especially closeted youth with unsupportive families like myself. It will raise suicide rates among queer teenagers as well (that, as I said, most likely have unsupportive families), which is the opposite of what the bill claims it’s trying to do (filter content for things that could cause anxiety or depression, which many people already do by curating their social media feeds). The community that I and many others have found online thats helped us learn to accept ourselves as who we are is extremely important. This is a dead bill that should’ve stayed dead.

Surveillance on this level should not be normalized. I am LGBTQ and was once an LGBTQ youth and I know this law would have and will make my life and everybody else's in this nation much harder. Wanting privacy isn't us being suspicious. It's suspicious that these laws being passed are trying to enable not only the government to have more power over us, but for third-party companies to have access to our vital private information. It's hard enough to verify your identity as well as it is easy enough to steal someone else's identity. KOSA brings so many problems to the table that will ultimately harm us all. Targeting specific groups of people to then target the entire nation. It must be stopped.

It is important to address the problem at hand, instead of promising vague protection for children.

Because KOSA endangers the very existence of free information exchange on the internet and threatens to destroy the ability for LGBTQ+ people to be able to find resources and community online.

Because if kosa is passed, my brother and I will lose all acess to any form of help shiuld our family find out we're queer.

Kosa will get rid of valuable resources for children that give them a chance to escape abusive setting, ex; a family that believed being LGBTQA+ is evil, or will get rid of the chance for LGBTQA+ youth to discover/figure out who they are in a safer environment (aka where they are excepted and protected) This will end up causing more youth suicides either through abuse, or feeling like something is wrong/missing with them. Kosa might also allow for abusive family’s to control their children even further, which even in a situation not related to LGBTQA+ hate can and will be detrimental.

Because I lived through online censorship once with SESTA/FOSTA and it destroyed my online community. I refuse to let that happen to me and my friends again.

This won't help anyone. It will stop children from finding their safe havens. Stop them from being able to learn more about the world and who they want to be in it. It's sickening how much people want control over others. Especially children. This law will hide abuse patterns and important things children should learn especially how to get help.

This law will do more harm than good.

I am LGBTQ and the internet has helped me figure out who I am and connect to people to help my mental health.

Kosa will prevent me from accessing people that I care about and seek comfort in, it will also prevent me from accessing information on safe sex which can be incredibly dangerous.

Quite honestly, this may not be the right way of trying to make sure children are really safe. This could be weaponized against the minority population in a bad way.

I care about LGBTQ youth because access to safe spaces and supportive groups are life saving resources for young queer people especially such as myself

I care about LGBT youth because they deserve to happy, especially in a time as horrible as this. KOSA needs to be stopped NOW!!!

I care because the communities, I am apart of are directly threatened by KOSA. The more resources we preserve including online libraries will lead to lower suicide rates.

The internet is the only safe haven from the injustices and cruelty of the world. If KOSA passes we'll officially have kicked off the start of a dystopian society. We cannot let that happen, our freedoms need to be protected, both online & real life. We need to hold big tech companies responsible for things they do, and we need to make sure they dont interfere in our government. In order to protect kids, KOSA must not pass!

KOSA is a bill that looks like it has good intentions on paper, but the more you look into it, the more you can see flaws that could be abused for harmful censorship. As such, there is too much room for government members who view themes within the LGBTQ community as harmful, to omit those themes. This takes away the right of freedom of speech but also takes away the youths ability to find support and information on such topics. Specifically, the internet has become the best place for people to find support and communities, where they have none at home. KOSA would mean taking that away, and leaving the youth in a potentially unsafe environment with no where to turn to. This kind of bill wont keep anyone safe, it will just make things worse.

As a queer person myself with many online queer friends in dangerous living situations laws like KOSA would actively endanger my friends and their ability to contact people that can help and support them.

Because I want LGBTQ+ youth to be free to express themselves and have joy without any form of judgement, bigotry or hate.

Because I am a part of the LGBTQ Youth myself and I know many of my friends and even people I look up to will be negatively Impacted by this bill.

KOSA is only going to silence minority voices that already struggle with being heard. This is extreme censorship that violates the First Amendment and is going to ruin the internet as we know it. Kids and adults alike will have a hard time getting the resources they need in order to get help, whether it's due to sexual health, their identity, addiction, or anything else this bill considers "pornographic" or "inappropriate". There are much better ways to help kids online - ways that don't censor LGBTQ+ and other minority voices.

Because I was once an LGBTQ child, and I don’t want others like me to be in danger.

I oppose KOSA because it will not only restrict everyone’s freedoms online but will also put kids in abusive or non supportive living conditions in even more danger, as restricting access to information will make them more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

The internet is a resource that helped me discover my identity from a young age. If I had never found the label for not wanting romance or sex— aroace, I would've probably felt the need to get married. Been ashamed of myself growing older, not wanting romance or sex at all. Having access to a wealth of information such as the internet, able to provide you with those terms and communities and show you stories of people who are just like you, it makes you feel seen. It's comforting. And I feel that's just incredibly important. I don't want the youth of today to lose what we've always had at our fingertips.

Because KOSA will take every single thing that saved me and made my life way more bearable, everything in my life right now is the reason I live still today

Because my fellow queers deserve equal access to information about themselves, their histories, and their communities. And because everyone deserves privacy online, something that even the revised version of KOSA will not deliver.

Because I was a gay kid. I was a trans kid. I know exactly how terrifying it is to live in a world where you understand nothing and know only that you're different. Kids need access to resources both online and offline to learn about themselves and others and to feel safe in their own skin.

Less access to resources creates a less safe world for queer and straight youth alike. It doesn’t stop problems - it just brushes them under the rug, where it’s harder to get help.

I care because we deserve access to information on a variety of subjects from trans rights info to pro-Palestine content.

Because everyone deserves the right to freedom of information, and right to express themselves as who they really are. Everyone should be able to access online material without having to submit a government ID. In a democracy, freedom of information to ALL is paramount. People, especially youth when growing up want to learn. It is the parents job to protect the child, not the government. We need better parents, not censorship. Every child develops differently. Blanket legislation wont help. LGBTQ+ individuals should be able to live freely as they want without fear of censorship.