Federal legislation is a false choice between safety and surveillance: Protecting kids doesn’t require sacrificing privacy and free speech.

Eight years ago, my son David died by suicide at 16. His death followed a yearlong battle with social media and online gaming addiction as well as months of intense and threatening cyberbullying that left him feeling helpless and hopeless.

The bill in question is called the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA. As with many acts of scoundrels, it uses the cloak of caring “for the children” to mask its real intent, which is to give government bureaucrats greater control over what we can see and say on the internet.

A bipartisan effort to protect children from the harms of social media is running out of time in this session of the U.S. Congress. If passed, the Kids Online Safety Act would institute safeguards for minors’ personal data online.