Driving the news: The letter comes as Senate sponsors of the Kids Online Safety Act push for passage in the lame-duck session of Congress, calling it an important way to hold social media platforms accountable for harm to children in the absence of a broader U.S. online privacy law.What they're saying: "[We believe] that the privacy, online safety, and digital well-being of children should be protected," groups including the ACLU, GLAAD, Fight for the Future, Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Library Association and Wikimedia Foundation write in the letter to senators.- "However, [the bill] would undermine those goals... by effectively forcing providers to use invasive filtering and monitoring tools; jeopardizing private, secure communications; incentivizing increased data collection on children and adults; and undermining the delivery of critical services to minors by public agencies like schools," the groups write.How it works: The groups say the bill's requirement that sites filter online content would lead to "over-moderation" and cut off members of marginalized younger groups who rely on online services to learn about sex education or access LGBTQ+ resources.- They also argue the bill's parental supervision aspect "would effectively require online services to enable parental surveillance of 15- and 16-year-olds by default" and could harm teens experiencing domestic violence."