Developed by Summerfall Studios and published by Humble Games, Stray Gods: The Role Playing Musical was originally released in August 2023. Additional content known as "Stray Gods: Orpheus" was released in late June 2024 on all consoles. For the purpose of this review, I will only be reviewing the base game as I have not played the DLC yet.
Stray Gods tells the epic tale of Grace, a young woman and college dropout who feels directionless. After meeting a mysterious young woman named Calliope, Grace returns home only to have a fatally wounded Calliope die in her arms. From here, Grace finds herself becoming the last Muse, accused of murder by a chorus of Greek gods. Now, she has seven days to prove her innocence and find the true killer or be sentenced to death.
One of the first notable features in Stray Gods is the animated sequences. Consisting of 2D hand-illustrated visuals created by art director Benjamin Ee and illustrator Jess Lee, watching the animation feels almost like looking at a comic book. Characters are drawn realistically so that facial expressions and movement feel true to life. The designs are diverse in terms of race, gender, and body type and also vibrant and detailed enough to show facets of each character's personality.
Source: Press Kit.
Characters are drawn realistically so that facial expressions and movement feel true to life.
Speaking of the characters, they are a pretty lively bunch. Grace will be relatable to anyone who has felt stuck in life, while her female best friend Freddie is cool, optimistic, and knowledgeable about Greek mythology. Then, there are the Greek gods themselves. Hermes is a cheerful nonbinary Asian messenger with magic doorways. Persephone is a tough-as-nails club owner with a soft side. Aphrodite is beautiful, soulful, and deeply troubled. Orpheus is vindictive and musically gifted. These characters and their personal stories are dynamically enhanced by a stellar international voice cast that includes Laura Bailey, Erika Ishii, Merle Dandridge, and Anthony Rapp.
Moreover, the characters, story, and animated sequences are brought to life through fabulous musical numbers that change lyrically and genre-wise depending on the dialogue you select out of a series of timed, color-coded choices. The musical numbers are also affected by the color-coded traits you select for Grace at the beginning and climax of the game, which range from charming (green), kick-ass (red), or clever (blue). On my first playthrough, I chose the Clever trait, which made the song "I Can Teach You" into a fun jazz track. On the other hand, the kick-ass trait turned this song into an angry solo jazz number.
Source: YouTube.
In addition to making choices during musical numbers, the dialogue choices you select influence which characters you romance. Some choices come with heart options that allow you to flirt with a character and at some point, you get choices with an exclamation point. Choosing the right one allows you to romance a character and later get a musical number. There are four romance options, including Apollo, Persephone, Freddie, and Pan. I romanced Freddie on my second playthrough and found their courtship poignant, down-to-earth, and sweet. However, other players might want to consider using a guide if you are going for a certain character to ensure that you pick the correct dialogue options, as it is possible to get locked out of romancing a character if you pick the wrong ones.
Source: Author.
This brings me to the last two prominent aspects of the game. The first is the ability to reload your save from specific points in the game. If you dislike a choice you make in one musical number or a dialogue option, you can reload the chapter it is in and do it again. While you can't hit the "Y" button and fast forward through musical numbers you've already done, you can do this with the dialogue lines.
For those who want to do multiple routes, the replay value is very high. There are multiple save slots available for different playthroughs and the ability to skip dialogue lines assists with this. Not to mention, the rewards are worth it as you get to romance different characters, see what happens if you side with certain characters, and hear different versions of the songs.
All in all, this game is a campy and engrossing visual novel with a song in its heart. Visually striking animation, charismatic characters, and dramatic musical numbers come together to tell a magical story about gods learning to be human and finding a new place for themselves.
Thirsty Suitors is a unique, story rich game that features love, battles, and Asian family drama (and not the kind of drama that would end up in a soap, but the mundane ones that haunt a queer South Asian).
Player character Jala is flawed, funny, and relatable. She has to skateboard through her hometown and battle her exes, even if they're cool. With a month to go before her sister's wedding, Jala has to make amends, and find out if she's invited. That isn't a lot of time for reconciliation!
I've been looking forward to the full release of Thirsty Suitors for a while since playing the demo two years ago. You can find my thoughts here in a compilation of Superjump's October 2022 Steam Demo fest recommendations. A friend was kind enough to gift it to me, and I finally got a chance to play it this June for Pride month.
What I love is that this game understands how hard it is to be queer and Asian in a diaspora world. Some family members refuse to comprehend the meaning of the word "bisexual". While Jala's parents are more understanding, with her dad providing unconditional love and support with bad puns, her grandmother has questions about why Jala is not happily settled down with someone. Namely, settled with an Indian guy who has a job and a career. For Jala to assert she doesn't just want to settle, she has to fight. Literally!
Beyond the diner scene in the demo
The Thirsty Suitors demo starts with a bus ride and tutorial. We also start there in the proper game. After a messy breakup, Jala is homeless, and without anything but a skateboard and her backpack. She scrounges up her pocket money to take the bus home to Timber Hills. A chance run-in with an ex may provide her a ride home, or an awkward battle as she and her opponent fight, flirt, and flex. The flexing is literal since Sergio has been working out since their elementary school days.
Source: Steam.
Turns out that Jala has gotten around a lot, with enough exes to rival the ones that Ramona Flowers had in Scott Pilgrim. Some are not interested after she broke their hearts, while others seek revenge. A few, like Sergio, consider getting closure. Either way, it seems Jala will have to fight them with the power of thirsty or angry taunts.
So that's where the demo ended. But then the story really begins when Jala finds out over an awkward breakfast with her parents that her big sister Aruni is getting married. Their grandmother is coming for the wedding and has been sending suitors after Jala to court her. All Indian guys, of course, who have jobs and respectable backgrounds. Jala loves Patti but isn't ready for any sort of romance after her breakup. Heck, she doesn't even know if she's back in Timber Hills to make amends with the family she left behind or improvise a way forward. Talking to Aruni is a high priority, but so is avoiding all the Indian suitors. They appear in gift boxes around town last that I checked.
I'm so relieved that the game gives settings for adjusting the battle difficulty. The battles in the demo were difficult, especially for someone like me who is not coordinated in a 3D pixel world. I'm already having trouble managing Jala on her skateboard since it's easy to nearly run over people or crash into railings. Still, you get some time to practice and determine Jala's Thirstsona based on the points she earns from battles.
Caught between expectations and tradition
This game totally renders what it's like to be adult, South Asian, and queer. Specifically, when you are out of the closet and your family remains in denial. If you're a cis woman and Indian-Asian, you have to fit the mold that before you turn 35, you need to get married to an Indian guy. Sure, you may be able to avoid it if your sisters end up with non-Indian men and scandalize mothers with a divorce, but awkward questions will arise. And those who marry non-Indian guys will always face their parents' remorse about it.
Elephants in the room exist in the game. Jala's parents don't want to talk about the fact that she cut them off for three years following a nasty fight with her mother and moving in with a woman named Jennifer. Her mother instead expresses disappointment about how she didn't bother calling while her dad suggests activities to mend bonds with Aruni and other family members. Jala doesn't want to talk about why Jennifer kicked her out and didn't even let her pack clothes. She can admit that her mother was right about Jennifer, but that's about it. Time will tell if these people will open up about what really happened, without dramatic meltdowns.
Source: ThirstySuitors.com
On the surface, Jala meets some of her parents' expectations. She's skinny owing to her constant skateboarding and wears clothes that some consider fashionable. In addition, she's been independent for a while and doesn't have chronic health conditions. When you hear meltdowns and needling remarks about any of these things, it sets the tone for impossible standards to meet.
In private, however, Jala's mother expresses some of the traditional views and disappointments that can hit any queer Indian adult. Her younger daughter doesn't have a high-power job that earns a lot of money or any sense of direction in life. Not to mention she's single, and her choice of romantic partners has been questionable at best. Jala has no future right now, and her past is sordid by conservative Indian standards. These small jabs hit close to home, even with her dad playing good cop. Jala internalizes all these criticisms and repeats them on loop, another thing that hits very close to home.
Then there's Aruni. The older responsible sister, who has found a decent guy, moved out but stayed within walking distance, and apparently has no issues. Jala wants to mend her bond with her older sister but doesn't know how, since they ghosted each other. She may not even have a wedding invitation! Conversation has to happen, along with answers. But Aruni also represents everything Jala isn't: the model daughter for South Asian parents. Jala implies that's why the two haven't spoken in months but someone has to break the ice.
Source: Steam.
Skating to a new life
It will be interesting to see where the rest of the story will go. Jala is by no means perfect, but she is relatable to the Gen Y South Asian in the West. Her story is bound to have as many twists and turns as her skateboard routes.
I also can't wait to see how the game will address this awkward status that Jala has as a South Asian disaster bisexual. She will have to assert herself to her grandmother and figure out a way forward after a breakup.
Together We Thrive: Celebrating the Joy of the LGBTQIA+ Community in Gaming
Team Xbox
Summary
The Trevor Project and the Gaming Safety team are partnering to create a safer, more inclusive gaming community.
Explore Games Curated by LGBTQIA+ Communities at Microsoft.
Discover Pride Gear.
Games can be a powerful medium to express and explore one’s identity in a creative and safe environment. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind allows players to romance and marry characters regardless of their gender. Overwatch features openly LGBTQIA+ characters, such as Tracer, who is heroic, strong, and prominently featured in the game. Tell Me Why tells the story of Tyler, a transgender man, with sensitivity and depth. Games can be a powerful way to explore identities within the safety of creative play while enabling all players to experience new perspectives that may be different from their own.
This Pride month, we invite you to join us on this journey of learning, growing, and thriving. Gaming is for everyone, and together, we can work towards creating a gaming community that is welcoming to everyone and is inclusive of people with a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. That meaningful work is achieved through people impacting others through education, appreciating the lived experiences of others and building empathy with members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
We believe it’s important to support organizations that uplift, empower, and address the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. In the last 30 years, together with our employees, Microsoft has donated over $16M to organizations that support the LGBTQIA+ community, and in the last year alone, we donated over $1.3M. This year Xbox, along with Microsoft, is thrilled to continue these efforts with a $200K contribution to multiple organizations supporting the LGBQTIA+ community to help inspire conversations, rally community actions, and empower people to share their Pride.
Additionally, Xbox Game Studios Publishing is proud to continue partnering with GLAAD to produce more inclusive games from conception to design to development. Xbox is partnering with The Trevor Project to help connect LGBTQIA+ players with valuable resources that help support well-being and safety as they play within the Xbox community. Every player has a unique story, and we look forward to future projects where people across the rainbow spectrum may experience the same empowerment. Read on to learn more about how we are celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community this month and beyond:
GIVE
Spotlighting Xbox’s partnership with The Trevor Project
Gaming has long been a source of fun, community, and self-expression for the LGBTQIA+ community. According to GLAAD, LGBTQIA+ gamers are 24% more likely to use gaming as a support to help get them through tough times – with 66% of LGBTQIA+ players sharing that gaming allows them to express themselves in a way they don’t feel comfortable doing in the real world.
This impact is not lost on us. At Xbox, we are committed to creating gaming experiences that are welcoming for all players, and that includes providing a safe and inclusive space where everyone can be their authentic selves.
That’s why we’re proud to spotlight Xbox’s standing partnership with The Trevor Project, a U.S. nonprofit that provides lifesaving and life-affirming services to LGBTQIA+ young people. Since 2019, Xbox and its safety teams have been partnering with The Trevor Project to connect players with resources to support their well-being and ensure they feel safe and welcome when they play on Xbox.
In the spirit of Pride, we want to share the following safety tips to help players get the most out of their gaming experience:
Explore your user settings. Xbox offers settings that allow players choice in how they play. Players can select whether to make their friends list visible, choose to receive messages from people who aren’t friends, or block content they don’t wish to view.
Take comfort in knowing Xbox has your back. To support the broader player-base and LGBTQIA+ community, we take player safety seriously. This includes:
In-game reporting tools to help players flag issues of inappropriate behavior or content. Xbox invests in 24/7 coverage globally to help respond to and investigate reports.
Moderation tools that work across text, images video and voice, to block harmful content before it reaches players.
Access to automatic text filters, which empowers players to customize their gaming experience and decide what content is not okay to receive – these filters automatically block content before it reaches the player.
Continuing to create proactive measures to block hate speech and invest in technologies to help moderate potentially toxic communications, while allowing individual expression.
Gaming and Impact with Rewards with Xbox
Rewards members in the United States can earn and donate points to organizations supporting LGBTQIA+ communities with Xbox. The organizations below will be available on the Rewards hub:
GLAAD: Founded in 1985, GLAAD – the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization – works with television, film, video games, Spanish-language media, journalists, and social media to tell stories and consult on LGBTQ media representation. GLAAD tackles tough issues and provokes dialogue that leads to cultural change through increased media accountability, public campaigns, corporate engagement initiatives, and advocacy programs that help to ensure 100% inclusion and acceptance of the LGBTQ community. (US)
Outright International: Outright International is dedicated to working with partners around the globe to strengthen the capacity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) human rights movement, document and amplify human rights violations against LGBTIQ people, and advocate for inclusion and equality. (US)
National Center for Transgender Equality: The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) advocates to change policies and society to increase understanding and acceptance of transgender and non-binary people. In the nation’s capital and throughout the country, NCTE works to replace disrespect, discrimination, and violence with empathy, opportunity, and justice. (US)
Xbox players can earn Rewards points in various ways, such as playing games, completing Game Pass Quests, and purchasing games and other eligible items at the Microsoft Store (exclusions apply). Start earning todayand redeem your points for great rewards. Donate your points on the Rewards hub or on the Rewards redeem page.
PLAY
Tell Me Why Available for Free in June on Xbox Consoles, Microsoft Store, and Steam!
Tell Me Why, the award-winning narrative adventure from Don’t Nod Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios Publishing, will be available for free on Xbox consoles, Windows PC, and Steam for the entire month of June 2024. As in past years, the Tell Me Why team encourages players to give what they would have spent on Tell Me Why to an independent trans creator or a trans-inclusive charity in their community.
Explore Games Curated by LGBTQIA+ Communities at Microsoft
Xbox invites you to play with pride.
During June and beyond, check out a variety of game collections that showcase LGBTQIA+ creators, lead characters, and games with inclusive gender and relationship options. Available on the Microsoft Stores on Xbox and Windows, check out the transgender and non-binary community games collection and the LGBTQIA+ community games collection. These collections will exist year-round as part of our ongoing work to create more inclusive gaming ecosystems and elevate content that resonates with communities. For Xbox Game Pass members, explore what games are available to play in the Xbox Game Pass collection and the PC Game Pass collection.
Featured titles within the collections include:
Need for Speed Unbound (Available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Console, PC, and Cloud) – Need for Speed Unbound’s character creator allows for multiple gender expressions via clothing, hair, and voice options that aren’t limited to the gender binary. The game also features racing rival, Justicia, a trans woman voiced by trans actress, Sena Bryer, in addition to including LGBTQIA+ iconography in the streets and as decals for your cars.
Starfield (Available with Xbox Game Pass on Console, PC, and Cloud) – In this role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey. Starfield boasts an impressive character creation tool with multiple body types, skin tones, hairstyles, non-gendered features, and they/them pronoun options. Exploration options include pursuing romantic relationships regardless of gender.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Available on Console) – Play as star and stagehand as you determine the story through conversation and song in this video game for musical lovers. Written by the iconic and openly gay narrative designer, David Gaider, you’ll craft not only a unique narrative, but a soundtrack to your own musical experience based on your choices. Forge your own story and decide who to romance.
The Quarry (Available with Xbox Game Pass on Console and Cloud) – Play solo or in a group of friends as any of nine camp counselors in this thrilling cinematic experience that leads down a tangled web of possibilities based on your choices. Enjoy a night of fun before a party quickly turns into an unpredictable night of horror and your relationships are tested by unimaginable life-or-death decisions.
This Bed We Made (Available on Console) – Chloe Lussier, CEO and co-founder of Lowbirth Games, wants to tell impactful stories that feature unconventional heroes. Set in the 1950s, the story that unfolds in This Bed We Made is tied to real history when being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community was criminalized. Step into the role of Sophie, an indiscreet chambermaid at a hotel filled with secrets, in this third-person mystery narrative game that explores the lengths people have had to go to pursue loving relationships as their authentic self.
Celebrate Pride in Forza Horizon 5
This year’s Pride-themed Xbox art will be added to Forza Horizon 5 as a vinyl: an in-game decal that you can use to customize any car. Show off this unique design on your car using #ForzaRainbow on social media for a chance to be featured! (The vinyl will be available starting June 7 from the Forza Horizon accounts on Instagram and X.)
Overwatch 2 Celebrates Pride with In-Game Map and Calling All Heroes
Overwatch 2 celebrates Pride this month with the return of a fan-favorite map and Calling All Heroes. All month long, the Pride festival returns to Overwatch 2’s Midtown map. Players can look forward to playing on this map as they queue for Unranked and Competitive games and directly in a dedicated play card on the Arcade. Calling All Heroes is Overwatch 2’s competitive Esports series that provides an inclusive environment to aspiring competitors of marginalized genders, including those who present themselves as Trans, Non-Binary, and Genderqueer. This competition returned last weekend, and everyone who tunes in at twitch.tv/ow_esportswill be able to earn new drops like the new Monarch Venture skin.
DISCOVER
Xbox Gear Shop
Show your love and support for Pride 2024 with our new limited-edition t-shirts, hoodies and more – designed by and with the LGBTQIA+ communities. Get your Pride gear now!
Celebrate Pride with the new 2024 Pride Collection exclusively on the Blizzard Gear Store! Led through the Blizzard LGBT+ Employee Network, the Blizzard Pride Collection features Pride-themed apparel benefitting The Trevor Project from May 15 through June 30, 2024.
Explore Xbox’s Kingdom of Color
In celebration of Pride, the Xbox logo was reimagined as a crystal radiating with power at the top of a magic staff. The storybook-inspired image also includes a castle with festive rainbow banners and fireworks. The artist, who is part of the LGBTQIA+ community, imagines the Kingdom of Color as a place where people who identify as LGBTQIA+ rule and the magic of Pride is spread to every corner of the realm. Right from the pages of a leather-bound book filled with colorful art and calligraphy text, this image evokes not only familiar stories of dragons, knights, and wizards, but launches those stories into a more inclusive future in which all players find their magic.
Xbox Ambassadors Celebrate Pride 2024
The Xbox Ambassadors Program is celebrating Pride by spotlighting members of the Xbox Ambassadors community who responded to a recent survey about their experiences as gamers.Read the Xbox Ambassadors blog to hear community members sharing their favorite memories playing video games, recommending games that do a good job representing LGBTQIA+ people and experiences, and offering tips on how to stay safe when gaming online.
Pride Dynamic Background and Wallpaper Available Now
The Pride Month Xbox design is available today as an Xbox wallpaper and dynamic background on console – follow these steps to apply the dynamic background:
Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide.
Select Profile & system > Settings > General > Personalization > My background > Dynamic backgrounds.
You can choose between Games, Xbox, or Abstract dynamic backgrounds. Choose the background art that you want with the A button.
Radical Joy with Microsoft
In the face of adversity, existence itself can be resistance and spark change. This Pride, LGBTQIA+ people at Microsoft share the meaning of joy and invite everyone to spread acceptance, abundance, and harmony everywhere. Join us and discover more at Microsoft.com/pride.
By now you know that Senator Richard Blumenthal has released a new version of KOSA, the misleadingly named Kids Online Safety Act, that he pretends fixes all the problems. It doesn’t. It still represents a real threat to speech online, and in particular speech from LGBTQ users. This is why Blumenthal, a prominent Democrat, is putting out press releases including supportive quotes from infamous anti-LGBTQ groups like the Institute for Family Studies and the “American Principles Project” (one of the leading forces behind anti-trans bills across the US). Incredibly, it also has an approving quote from NCOSE, formerly known as “Morality in Media,” a bunch of prudish busybodies who believe all pornography should be banned, and who began life trying to get “salacious” magazines banned.
When a bill is getting supportive quotes from NCOSE, an organization whose entire formation story is based around an attempt to ban books, you know that bill is not good for speech.
Why is a Democratic Senator like Blumenthal lining up with such regressive, censorial, far right nonsense peddlers? Well, because he doesn’t give a shit that KOSA is going to do real harm to LGBTQ kids or violate the Constitution he swore an oath to protect: he just wants to get a headline or two claiming he’s protecting children, with not a single care about how much damage it will actually do.
Of course, as we noted, the latest bill does make it marginally more difficult to directly suppress LGBTQ content. It removed the ability of state Attorneys General to enforce one provision, the duty of care provision, though still allows them to enforce other provisions and to sue social media companies if those state AGs feel the companies aren’t complying with the law.
Still, at least some of the MAGA crowd feel that this move, making it marginally more difficult for state AGs to try to force LGBTQ content offline means the bill is no longer worth supporting. Here’s Charlie Kirk, a leading MAGA nonsense peddler who founded and runs Turning Point USA, whining that the bill is no longer okay, since it won’t be used to silence LGBTQ folks as easily:
If you can’t read that, it’s Charlie saying:
The Senate is considering the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill that looks to protect underage children from groomers, pornographers, and other predators online.
But the bill ran into trouble because LGBT groups were worried it would make it too easy for red state AGs to target predators who try to groom children into mutilating themselves or destroying themselves with hormones and puberty blockers.
So now, the bill has been overhauled to take away power from from state AGs (since some of them might be conservatives who care about children) and instead give almost all power to the FTC, currently read by ultra-left ideologue Lina Khan. Sure enough, LGBT groups have dropped all their concerns.
We’ve seen this pattern before. What are the odds that this bill does zero to protect children but a lot to vaguely enhance the power of Washington bureaucrats to destroy whoever they want, for any reason?
If you can get past his ridiculous language, you can see that he’s (once again, like the Heritage Foundation and KOSA co-sponsor Senator Marsha Blackburn before him) admitting that the reason the MAGA crowd supports KOSA is to silence LGBTQ voices, which he falsely attacks as “groomers, pornographers, and other predators.”
He’s wrong that the bill can’t still be used for this, but he’s correct that the bill now gives tremendous power to whoever is in charge of the FTC, whether its Lina Khan… or whatever MAGA incel could be put in place if Trump wins.
Meanwhile, if Kirk is so concerned about child predators and groomers, it’s odd you never see him call out the Catholic church. Or, his former employee who was recently sentenced to years in jail for his “collection” of child sexual abuse videos. Or the organization that teamed up with Turning Point USA to sponsor an event, even though the CEO was convicted of “coercing and enticing” a minor. It’s quite interesting that Kirk is so quick to accuse LGBTQ folks of “grooming” and “predation,” when he keeps finding actual such people around himself, and he never says a word.
Either way, I’m curious if watching groups like TPUSA freak out about this bill not being censorial enough of LGBTQ content will lead Republicans to get cold feet on supporting this bill.
At the very least, though, it’s a confirmation that Republican support for this bill is based on their strong belief that it will censor and suppress LGBTQ content.
The authors of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) unveiled an amended version last week, but it’s still an unconstitutional censorship bill that continues to empower state officials to target services and online content they do not like. We are asking everyone reading this to oppose this latest version, and to demand that their representatives oppose it—even if you have already done so.
KOSA remains a dangerous bill that would allow the government to decide what types of information can be shared and read online by everyone. It would still require an enormous number of websites, apps, and online platforms to filter and block legal, and important, speech. It would almost certainly still result in age verification requirements. Some of its provisions havechanged over time, and its latest changes are detailed below. But those improvements do not cure KOSA’s core First Amendment problems. Moreover, a close review shows that state attorneys general still have a great deal of power to target online services and speech they do not like, which we think will harm children seeking access to basic health information and a variety of other content that officials deem harmful to minors.
We’ll dive into the details of KOSA’s latest changes, but first we want to remind everyone of the stakes. KOSA is still a censorship bill and it will still harm a large number of minors who have First Amendment rights to access lawful speech online. It will endanger young people and impede the rights of everyone who uses the platforms, services, and websites affected by the bill. Based on our previous analyses, statements by its authors and various interest groups, as well as the overall politicization of youth education and online activity, we believe the following groups—to name just a few—will be endangered:
LGBTQ+ Youth will be at risk of having content, educational material, and their own online identities erased.
Young people searching for sexual health and reproductive rights information will find their search results stymied.
Teens and children in historically oppressed and marginalized groups will be unable to locate information about their history and shared experiences.
Activist youth on either side of the aisle, such as those fighting for changes to climate laws, gun laws, or religious rights, will be siloed, and unable to advocate and connect on platforms.
Young people seeking mental health help and information will be blocked from finding it, because even discussions of suicide, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders will be hidden from them.
Teens hoping to combat the problem of addiction—either their own, or that of their friends, families, and neighbors, will not have the resources they need to do so.
Any young person seeking truthful news or information that could be considered depressing will find it harder to educate themselves and engage in current events and honest discussion.
Adults in any of these groups who are unwilling to share their identities will find themselves shunted onto a second-class internet alongside the young people who have been denied access to this information.
What’s Changed in the Latest (2024) Version of KOSA
In its impact, the latest version of KOSA is not meaningfully different from those previous versions. The “duty of care” censorship section remains in the bill, though modified as we will explain below. The latest version removes the authority of state attorneys general to sue or prosecute people for not complying with the “duty of care.” But KOSA still permits these state officials to enforce other part of the bill based on their political whims and we expect those officials to use this new law to the same censorious ends as they would have of previous versions. And the legal requirements of KOSA are still only possible for sites to safely follow if they restrict access to content based on age, effectively mandating age verification.
KOSA is still a censorship bill and it will still harm a large number of minors
Duty of Care is Still a Duty of Censorship
Previously, KOSA outlined a wide collection of harms to minors that platforms had a duty to prevent and mitigate through “the design and operation” of their product. This includes self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, and bullying, among others. This seemingly anodyne requirement—that apps and websites must take measures to prevent some truly awful things from happening—would have led to overbroad censorship on otherwise legal, important topics for everyone as we’ve explained before.
The updated duty of care says that a platform shall “exercise reasonable care in the creation and implementation of any design feature” to prevent and mitigate those harms. The difference is subtle, and ultimately, unimportant. There is no case law defining what is “reasonable care” in this context. This language still means increased liability merely for hosting and distributing otherwise legal content that the government—in this case the FTC—claims is harmful.
Design Feature Liability
The bigger textual change is that the bill now includes a definition of a “design feature,” which the bill requires platforms to limit for minors. The “design feature” of products that could lead to liability is defined as:
any feature or component of a covered platform that will encourage or increase the frequency, time spent, or activity of minors on the covered platform, or activity of minors on the covered platform.
Design features include but are not limited to
(A) infinite scrolling or auto play;
(B) rewards for time spent on the platform;
(C) notifications;
(D) personalized recommendation systems;
(E) in-game purchases; or
(F) appearance altering filters.
These design features are a mix of basic elements and those that may be used to keep visitors on a site or platform. There are several problems with this provision. First, it’s not clear when offering basic features that many users rely on, such as notifications, by itself creates a harm. But that points to the fundamental problem of this provision. KOSA is essentially trying to use features of a service as a proxy to create liability for speech online that the bill’s authors do not like. But the list of harmful designs shows that the legislators backing KOSA want to regulate online content, not just design.
For example, if an online service presented an endless scroll of math problems for children to complete, or rewarded children with virtual stickers and other prizes for reading digital children’s books, would lawmakers consider those design features harmful? Of course not. Infinite scroll and autoplay are generally not a concern for legislators. It’s that these lawmakers do not likesome lawful content that is accessible via online service’s features.
What KOSA tries to do here then is to launder restrictions on content that lawmakers do not like through liability for supposedly harmful “design features.” But the First Amendment still prohibits Congress from indirectly trying to censor lawful speech it disfavors.
We shouldn’t kid ourselves that the latest version of KOSA will stop state officials from targeting vulnerable communities.
Allowing the government to ban content designs is a dangerous idea. If the FTC decided that direct messages, or encrypted messages, were leading to harm for minors—under this language they could bring an enforcement action against a platform that allowed users to send such messages.
Regardless of whether we like infinite scroll or auto-play on platforms, these design features are protected by the First Amendment; just like the design features we do like. If the government tried to limit an online newspaper from using an infinite scroll feature or auto-playing videos, that case would be struck down. KOSA’s latest variant is no different.
Attorneys General Can Still Use KOSA to Enact Political Agendas
As we mentioned above, the enforcement available to attorneys general has been narrowed to no longer include the duty of care. But due to the rule of construction and the fact that attorneys general can still enforce other portions of KOSA, this is cold comfort.
For example, it is true enough that the amendments to KOSA prohibit a state from targeting an online service based on claims that in hosting LGBTQ content that it violated KOSA’s duty of care. Yet that same official could use another provision of KOSA—which allows them to file suits based on failures in a platform’s design—to target the same content. The state attorney general could simply claim that they are not targeting the LGBTQ content, but rather the fact that the content was made available to minors via notifications, recommendations, or other features of a service.
We shouldn’t kid ourselves that the latest version of KOSA will stop state officials from targeting vulnerable communities. And KOSA leaves all of the bill’s censorial powers with the FTC, a five-person commission nominated by the president. This still allows a small group of federal officials appointed by the President to decide what content is dangerous for young people. Placing this enforcement power with the FTC is still a First Amendment problem: no government official, state or federal, has the power to dictate by law what people can read online.
The Long Fight Against KOSA Continues in 2024
For two years now, EFF has laid out the clear arguments against this bill. KOSA creates liability if an online service fails to perfectly police a variety of content that the bill deems harmful to minors. Services have little room to make any mistakes if some content is later deemed harmful to minors and, as a result, are likely to restrict access to a broad spectrum of lawful speech, including information about health issues like eating disorders, drug addiction, and anxiety.
The fight against KOSA has amassed an enormous coalition of people of all ages and all walks of life who know that censorship is not the right approach to protecting people online, and that the promise of the internet is one that must apply equally to everyone, regardless of age. Some of the people who have advocated against KOSA from day one have now graduated high school or college. But every time this bill returns, more people learn why we must stop it from becoming law.
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