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Tech Policy Press — Bipartisan Smorgasbord Passes the House
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Bipartisan Smorgasbord of Children’s Online Safety Legislation Passes the House
Tim Bernard / Jun 30, 2026
The Capitol is seen in Washington, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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On Monday, the United States House of Representatives passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, a sprawling collection of measures aimed at mitigating online harms to minors, in a 267-117 vote. The bill, H.R. 7757, will now head to the Senate, where it reportedly faces long odds.
Last week, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) announced that they had agreed on new text for the legislation, which is anchored around a version of Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), two bills that have been batted around by both houses of Congress in various forms for more than four years. A version of COPPA 2.0 passed the Senate in March and a Senate version of KOSA is also under consideration.
The committee narrowly voted to advance an earlier version of the KIDS Act in March, shortly after the bill was introduced. However, Guthrie and Pallone appear to have decided to find a text that they could both endorse, whether on principle or, especially in light of the Republicans’ paper-thin majority, to shore up the legislation’s support in the event of lobbying from Big Tech.
Earlier this year, the KIDS Act was the subject of much critique from safety advocates, state legislators, and state Attorneys General (for the version of KOSA that was incorporated into the KIDS Act). There are three main critiques of the earlier KIDS Act, two of which have been addressed in the new version:
- Preemption of state laws: The former version preempted state laws covering similar ground; the new version does not preempt any state law that is more protective. Still, Axios reports that critics are concerned the bill “would make it more difficult to sue social media companies for design features.”
- Standard of knowledge: The earlier version only expected online services to treat users as minors if they “have actual knowledge” of their age or “acted in willful disregard” in assuming that they are not minors, a standard that was seen as too weak by critics, compared to the Senate KOSA’s “knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances.” The version that passed the House employs a “know or should have known” standard, which is likely closer to the Senate’s formulation, for KOSA and some of the other measures. The “willful disregard” standard remains in the SPY Kids Act and Data Broker Disclosures measure.
- Duty of care: Other versions of KOSA, including the Senate’s, include a duty of care for platforms “in the creation and implementation of any design feature to prevent and mitigate” a series of specific harms. In both the March and the June texts for the KIDS Act, this is replaced by a requirement to “establish, implement, maintain, and enforce reasonable policies, practices, and procedures that address” a list of harms, which do not include several mental health-related harms that are present in the Senate’s text.
The other important development is that the KIDS Act now incorporates a version of COPPA 2.0 and a measure that requires data brokers who hold minors’ data to register with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Meanwhile, POLITICO reports that the White House is working with Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on a new package for the Senate, set to include the NO FAKES Act and the App Store Accountability Act as well as KOSA.
What’s in the KIDS Act?
Although KOSA and COPPA 2.0 are undoubtedly the two centerpieces of the package, 12 other pieces of legislation are also part of the Act, many of which were previously introduced independently. Each of these measures is summarized below. Of particular interest, however, are a number of caveats that apply to the interpretation of all measures in the KIDS Act and respond to the concerns of many critics of tech legislation.
None of the following may result from the Act:
- viewpoint-based enforcement
- prevention of platform actions to mitigate spam or criminality, or to ensure security
- exposure of minors’ data
- changes to Section 230
- preclusion of the use of encryption or decrypt user communications, or,
- “the affirmative collection of any personal information with respect to age that is not already collected in the normal course of business.”
It remains to be seen how compatible in practice these stipulations are with the measures prescribed in the main body of the bill, or if they can appease many of the passionate voices in the child safety, online civil liberties, or tech industry communities.