KIDS techpolicy press house package
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A single regime is also established for all the measures in the KIDS Act. The FTC is to enforce the act under its “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” processes. State Attorneys General may also bring civil actions, though the FTC can intervene and file appeal petitions in those cases. State suits may not be brought while an FTC-led case is pending for the same defendant.
Contents of the newly-passed KIDS Act
SCREEN Act
Websites with more than one-third material deemed “harmful to children,” i.e. pornography, are required to use age verification to block minors from access. This is a version of a statute already adopted in many red-leaning states to restrict minors’ access to pornography, and upheld by the Supreme Court. This appears to be the only measure in the bill that requires age verification; KOSA and COPPA 2.0 specifically exclude a requirement for age gating or age verification being implied. The prescription for age verification here is vague (“a system or process to determine whether it is more likely than not that a user of a covered platform is a minor”), but the legislation appears to give FTC leeway to create specific standards.
KOSA
The KIDS Act includes a version of KOSA with a collection of measures to protect children from harms on social media platforms, including:
- Covered platforms must take steps to address four specific harms to minors (under 17): severe threats of physical violence; sexual exploitation and abuse; the distribution, sale and use of gambling and drugs (including. alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis); and financial scams. Minors should still be able to actively seek out content and access protective resources.
- User tools must be provided and defaulted to the most restrictive setting for minors. These include: contact and privacy restrictions; limits on platform time; and the ability to opt out of personalized recommendations and or from specific categories of content being recommended.
- Parental controls must also be provided, and defaulted to the most restrictive setting for under-13s. Minors are to be notified when parental controls are applied.
- Direct messaging warnings and protections must be provided for teens.
- Platforms must respond to reports of harms to minors within 10 days, or sooner for imminent threats.
- Advertising illegal or age-restricted products to minors is prohibited.
- A third-party audit is required to assess compliance.
SPY Kids Act
Prohibits covered platforms from conducting “market or product-focused research” on minors (under 17), unless it is “used solely to improve the privacy, security, transparency, or safety of the covered platform.”
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Safer GAMING Act
Imposes safety measures on games that facilitate communication between users. Parental action required to allow communications for under-17s. Minors and parents must also have tools to: prevent the minor being recommended as a contact, restrict purchases, and impose time limits. Minors are to be notified when parental controls are applied.
SAFE BOTs Act
A collection of specific requirements for providers of AI chatbots when engaging with minors, including: AI chatbots may not claim to be licensed professionals; they must disclose that they are not real people both at the initiation of a session or if asked; they must must provide suicide and crisis hotline details; and they must advise the user to take a break after three hours. The providers must also have policies and procedures in place to address the first three harms cited in KOSA.
Safe Social Media Act
Directs a study on minors’ use of social media, platforms’ use of personal data, and mental health impacts of social media on minors.
No Fentanyl on Social Media Act
Directs a report on the ability of minors to access fentanyl through social media; relevant social media features to the access of fentanyl; and possible mitigations.
Assessing Safety Tools for Parents and Minors Act
Directs a review of industry efforts to promote minors’ online safety and their effectiveness.
Also included in the section following this language is a provision directing a 4-year longitudinal study on the risks and benefits of chatbots with respect to the mental health of minors.
Promoting a Safe Internet for Minors Act
Replaces a 2008 statute directing an online safety education program (Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act) with a new effort to identify best practices for online safety education, conduct an outreach campaign, and facilitate the sharing of and access to educational resources and information about online harms to minors.
AWARE Act
Directs the FTC to develop and make available educational resources regarding safe and responsible use of chatbots by minors.
Kids Internet Safety Partnership Act