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Sadly, The Kids Online Safety Act is not on the agenda before Congress wraps up the year.

Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin said the leading nonprofit advocating for the legislation is not pleased with the decision.

“[Speaker Mike Johnson] committed today to tackling online safety in the beginning of the year but he also said that he was going to support KOSA this year so actions speak louder than words,” Golin said.

Lawmakers have repeatedly revised the legislation. The latest version includes additional language-defining terms like reasonable care and reiterating the bill shall not infringe on the First Amendment.

“I never thought it infringed on anyone’s free speech rights but now it has been clarified and clarified and clarified and clarified even more and now has the support of free speech advocates like Elon Musk,” Golin said.

However, opposition said the revisions are largely cosmetic and still leaves language that could lead to censorship. Equality NY Executive Director Amanda Babine remained concerned social media platforms or policymakers could interpret LGBTQ+ content as inappropriate for children.

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Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) has revolutionized how we interact with technology, offering innovative tools and solutions. However, this technology also introduces significant risks, particularly to children. At the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), we are deeply concerned about the potential for GAI to be used in ways that sexually exploit and harm children.

Over the past two years, NCMEC’s CyberTipline has received more than 7,000 reports related to GAI-generated child exploitation. These reports represent only the cases we are aware of, and there are likely many more unreported or unidentified instances. As this technology becomes more pervasive, and public awareness grows, we expect these numbers to grow.

GAI technology enables the creation of fake imagery, including synthetic media, digital forgery, and nude images of children, through tools like “nudify” apps. These manipulative creations can cause tremendous harm to children, including harassment, future exploitation, fear, shame, and emotional distress. Even when exploitative images are entirely fabricated, the harm to children and their families is very real.

The risks don’t stop at images. GAI is being used to manipulate children in other ways, such as generating realistic text prompts that predators use to groom or exploit victims. Offenders have even leveraged GAI in sextortion cases, using explicit AI-generated imagery to coerce children into providing additional content or money. Financial sextortion is a growing threat, and GAI tools make it easier for offenders to target children.

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Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Friday her decision to seek the death penalty against two men charged with the abduction, assault, and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in June.

Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22, and Franklin Pena, 26, both Venezuelan nationals, face capital murder charges for the June 16 abduction, sexual assault, and strangulation of Nungaray.

Her body was discovered in shallow water under a bridge in Houston’s Greenspoint area the following day. Both men remain in custody at the Harris County Jail.

“Jocelyn’s murder was as vile, brutal and senseless as any case in my tenure as district attorney,” Ogg said Friday. “And it was made worse by knowing that these two men were here illegally and, had they been held after being captured at the border, they would never have had the opportunity to murder Jocelyn and destroy her family’s future.”

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In just six months, J.F., a sweet 17-year-old kid with autism who liked attending church and going on walks with his mom, had turned into someone his parents didn’t recognize.

He began cutting himself, lost 20 pounds and withdrew from his family. Desperate for answers, his mom searched his phone while he was sleeping. That’s when she found the screenshots.

J.F. had been chatting with an array of companions on Character.ai, part of a new wave of artificial intelligence appspopular with young people, which let users talk to a variety of AI-generated chatbots, often based on characters from gaming, anime and pop culture.

One chatbot brought up the idea of self-harm and cutting to cope with sadness. When he said that his parents limited his screen time, another bot suggested “they didn’t deserve to have kids.” Still others goaded him to fight his parents’ rules, with one suggesting that murder could be an acceptable response.

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Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have negotiated updated text for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) with Elon Musk’s social media platform X in an effort to quell Republican concerns about censorship in the House.

In a statement Saturday, the senators announced the updated text for KOSA boosts the protection of freedom of speech for minors online, a key concern for GOP leadership in the House, where the bill remains stalled.

“Led by X, the new changes made to the Kids Online Safety Act strengthen the bill while safeguarding free speech online and ensuring it is not used to stifle expression,” Blackburn and Blumenthal wrote. “These changes should eliminate once and for all the false narrative that this bill would be weaponized by unelected bureaucrats to censor Americans.”

X CEO Linda Yaccarino echoed their remarks, calling on Congress to pass KOSA before the end of the year.

The measure, which overwhelmingly passed in the Senate in July, seeks to create regulations for the kinds of features tech and social media companies offer kids online and reduce the addictive nature and mental health effects of these platforms.

“At X, protecting our children is our top priority. As I’ve always said, freedom of speech and safety can and must coexist. And as a mother, it’s personal,” she wrote Saturday on X.

Responding to Yaccarino’s statement on X, Musk said, “Protecting kids should always be priority #1.”

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Jay-Z, the star rapper and entrepreneur whose real name is Shawn Carter, was accused in a lawsuit Sunday of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 allegedly along with Sean “Diddy” Combs.

The anonymous accuser, identified only as “Jane Doe,” said the assault happened after she was driven to an MTV Video Music Awards after-party.

The federal lawsuit was originally filed in October in the Southern District of New York, listing Combs as a defendant. It was refiled Sunday to include Carter.

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