House Passes Sweeping Kids Online Safety Package, Setting Up Senate Showdown Over 'Duty of Care'

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act on Monday evening in a 267-117 vote, advancing a sprawling package of online child safety legislation. The vote marks the most significant federal attempt to regulate technology platforms in decades, though the bill's path forward remains highly uncertain.[1]

Brokered by House Energy and Commerce leaders Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the legislation merges 14 separate digital safety proposals into a single compromise measure. It includes revised versions of the long-debated Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0).[1][2]

House Speaker Mike Johnson praised the passage, calling it a "major remedy" to the dangers children face online. He emphasized that the bill strikes a balance by holding tech companies accountable while empowering parents to make decisions for their families and protecting free speech.

The legislation would fundamentally reshape the digital landscape for young users. It extends COPPA's privacy protections to teenagers up to age 17, bans targeted advertising to minors, and restricts features like disappearing messages.

Beyond privacy, the KIDS Act forces platforms to alter their core architecture. Companies would be required to provide tools that limit communications from unknown users, restrict profile visibility, and disable personalized recommendation algorithms by default for minors. The bill specifically targets design features that allegedly result in "compulsive usage," aiming to break the cycle of endless scrolling.

The bill also mandates that AI chatbots explicitly disclose they are not human and provide mental health resources when prompted. Furthermore, it requires age-verification technology for platforms hosting pornographic content, a measure that typically involves submitting government IDs or facial scans.[1]

Despite the bipartisan House vote, the package faces a hostile reception in the Senate. To secure passage, House leaders stripped KOSA of its central "duty of care" provision. This legal standard would have required tech companies to actively prevent their platforms from promoting self-harm, eating disorders, and substance abuse.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and KOSA's original co-sponsor, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), immediately criticized the omission. Cantwell warned the Senate would not accept "bad legislation with a good title," while Blackburn argued that without a duty of care, Big Tech will continue prioritizing profit over safety.

The bill also sparked a revolt from state-level officials. A coalition of 45 state attorneys general warned that the House package could preempt states from enforcing their own, stricter child safety laws. This concern prompted several progressive lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), to vote against the measure.

Enforcement of the KIDS Act would fall to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general. However, the House version's reliance on a "knowledge fairly implied" standard—rather than strict liability—has drawn criticism from safety advocates who argue it gives tech companies too much leeway to claim ignorance about the age of their users.[2]

Digital rights organizations and LGBTQ advocates remain fiercely opposed to the broader framework. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has characterized the age-verification mandates as a "giant censorship machine" that compromises user privacy.

LGBTQ advocates have repeatedly warned that conservative state attorneys general could weaponize the safety mandates to restrict access to queer content and resources, citing past comments by conservative lawmakers framing transgender content as an online harm.

The legislation now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers must reconcile the House's watered-down liability standards with the Senate's stricter framework. With the congressional calendar shrinking ahead of the midterm elections, the fate of federal online safety regulation hangs in the balance.