KIDS 01 lead up to the kids act
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The Road to the KIDS Act (2021–2026)
synthesized-overview . retrieved 2026-06-28
sources: Wikipedia, Blumenthal/Blackburn/Markey Senate offices, CT Mirror, Tech Policy Press, Pillsbury
archived for offline mesh reading
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Why H.R. 7757 looks the way it does — a five-year story of a bill that kept passing one
chamber and dying in the other, until it was rebuilt to survive.
The starting gun (2021)
Frances Haugen's leaked Facebook research (see [[00-history-of-childrens-online-safety]])
gave both parties a rare shared villain: engagement-optimized design that platforms knew
was harming teens. KOSA was drafted as the answer.
Attempt #1 — the 117th Congress (2022)
- **Feb 16, 2022:** Blumenthal & Blackburn introduce **KOSA**; Markey & Cassidy carry
**COPPA 2.0** in parallel.
- **July 2022:** Senate Commerce Committee advances both.
- **Dead end:** neither reaches the floor before the 117th Congress ends.
Attempt #2 — the 118th Congress (2023–2024)
- **May 2, 2023:** KOSA reintroduced after President Biden's State of the Union urged
Congress to act on kids and Big Tech.
- **Revisions to survive the First Amendment:** in response to fierce civil-liberties
criticism (see [[../Controversies/00-key-debates-and-controversies]]), the sponsors
**narrowed the duty of care** and **stripped state Attorneys General of the power to
enforce it** — moving that enforcement to the FTC — to blunt fears that partisan AGs
would weaponize the law against LGBTQ or other disfavored content.
- **July 30, 2024:** the Senate passes the combined **Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act**
(KOSA + COPPA 2.0), **91–3.** A landmark — the first big tech-reform vote since 1998.
- **The House kills it.** House Energy & Commerce marks it up (subcommittee **Sept 18,
2024**), but hastily-added duty-of-care amendments widen the gap with the Senate text,
sponsors and advocates revolt, Speaker leadership never floors it, and the bill **dies
with the 118th Congress.** All progress nullified.
Attempt #3 — the 119th Congress (2025–2026): the rebuild
This time the strategy changed: **decouple, de-risk, and bundle.**
- **May 2025:** KOSA reintroduced as **S.1748** (Blackburn, Blumenthal, Thune, Schumer) —
leadership sponsorship signaling seriousness. COPPA 2.0 reintroduced as **S.836**
(Markey/Cassidy) and **H.R.6291** (House companion).
- **Sept 2025:** Blumenthal reopens pressure on Meta, demanding it release internal
research — keeping the Haugen narrative alive.
- **March 5, 2026:** the Senate passes **COPPA 2.0 (S.836) by unanimous consent** — the
privacy half advances cleanly on its own.
- **June 2026 — the House deal.** House Energy & Commerce reaches a bipartisan agreement
on a *reworked* KOSA and folds everything into one omnibus, the **Kids Internet and
Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, H.R. 7757.** Crucially, the House version:
- **drops KOSA's "duty of care" entirely**, replacing it with **prohibitions on specific
design features** (the mechanism most likely to survive First Amendment review);
- **preempts certain state laws** (angering state AGs);
- **bundles in** COPPA 2.0 plus the Safe Messaging for Kids Act, SPY Kids Act, Safer
GAMING Act, **SAFE Bots Act** (AI companion-chatbot safety), data-broker disclosure,
and youth online-safety education/research measures.
- **June 29, 2026:** the House passes **H.R. 7757, 267–117.**
Why this version is different
Every prior attempt tripped over the **duty of care** — critics called it a censorship
engine, and the House couldn't reconcile it with the First Amendment. The 2026 House move
was to **abandon the duty of care** for enumerated design-feature bans and lean on the
**FTC** (not state AGs) for enforcement. That is what got it across the House floor — and
it is *also* the exact provision the Senate says it won't accept as-is. The bill advanced
by becoming more constitutionally defensible and less substantively strict — which is now
the core of the House–Senate standoff. *(See [[../What to Watch/00-post-passage-outlook]].)*
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Kids Online Safety Act" (timeline, votes, markup history)
- Blumenthal, Blackburn, Markey Senate press releases (introductions, Senate passage)
- CT Mirror (2024-07-25; 2025-09-26) — Senate advance and Meta-research fight
- Tech Policy Press; Pillsbury Law — June 2026 House package composition
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