BURSTHouse Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) cautioned Republicans against rushing to pass a bill to protect kids and teens online on Tuesday as the GOP prepares to take control of the White House and Congress.
While he said he is "100 percent" supportive of the principles behind the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), he still has concerns about the measure's implications for free speech.
"But you got to get this one right," he told reporters during a House leadership briefing Tuesday. "When you're … dealing with the regulation of free speech, you can't go too far and it be overbroad, but you want to achieve those objectives. So, it's essential that we get this issue right."
"We are very optimistic that it's not done this year, that we can do that early next year with our Republican majorities, because it's the Republican Party that has been working aggressively to protect children online," he added.
If passed, KOSA would create regulations for the kinds of features tech and social media companies offer kids online to lessen the addictive nature and mental health effects of the platforms.
Johnson's remarks come days after President-elect Trump's emerging ally and tech mogul Elon Musk and his son Donald Trump Jr. came out in support of KOSA, arguing that an updated version of the measure achieves members' safety goals without hindering free speech.
KOSA co-sponsors Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) announced last weekend they helped negotiate changes with Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino. The bill initially passed in the upper chamber last summer in a 91-3 vote.
“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,” Yaccarino wrote Saturday on X, to which Musk said, “Protecting kids should always be priority #1."
While the president-elect himself has not publicly weighed in on the issue, his son directly called on Congress to pass KOSA last weekend, writing on X, “We can protect free speech and our kids at the same time."
The comments from Trump's allies appeared to be a last-ditch attempt to quell concerns from Johnson and other House Republicans that the measure could censor conservative viewpoints.
Blackburn pushed back against Johnson's hesitation about KOSA's free speech components following his press conference Tuesday.
"Every day the Kids Online Safety Act is stalled in the House, more children are dying," she wrote on X. "That is why we worked with @elonmusk, @lindayaX, and @X to craft new text that would protect speech and our children. No one is more qualified to speak about protecting speech online than Elon Musk."
"House Republicans must get KOSA across the finish line this Congress so that President Trump can implement its protections. I will stay here as long as it takes to get a bill passed that will protect our kids online," she continued.
Blackburn, along with KOSA's lead sponsor in the House — Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) — continued their push at a rally Tuesday alongside tech advocacy groups and parents of children or teens who died or were seriously harmed as a result of social media.
Meanwhile, opposition to the bill outside of Congress still remains in some sectors.
Advocates for the LGBTQ community asked Democratic congressional leaders to reject KOSA, arguing it could stifle access to important information online. They are particularly concerned over the bill's “duty of care” provision, which requires social media companies to prevent and mitigate harms that their platforms cause young users, including suicide, eating disorders and sexual exploitation.