Why it Matters

A new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, published Aug. 3, examines the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, which the House passed on June 29. This act combines kids-safety-related bills discussed in the 119th Congress, including KOSA, the Safer GAMING Act, the SAFE BOTs Act, and COPPA 2.0. These bills rely platform to set safeguards and restrictions for minors, creating significant constitutional tensions. Outside obscenity law, courts have struck down similar age-verification requirements under strict scrutiny, and civil liberties groups say the rules could suppress protected speech.

The Big Picture

The KIDS Act tackles online child safety through several distinct bills. For example, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) requires platforms to implement default safeguards, parental controls, and teen messaging controls when they know or should have known a user is a minor, and the Safer GAMING Act would require providers to give parents tools to limit the minor's communication with others when they know or should have known that a user is a minor. Also, COPPA 2.0 expands existing children's privacy protections to all teens under 18, bans targeted advertising to minors, and imposes data minimization requirements. The KIDS Act includes ideas from 12 previously proposed pieces of legislation.

Senate sponsors of KOSA have publicly objected to the House's removal of a duty-of-care requirement, suggesting the chamber may demand changes before advancing the full package. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has argued that age verification requirements and content rules in the KIDS Act could chill protected speech. FIRE has argued that the KIDS Act would put Washington in charge of how people can communicate online.

The Bottom Line

Congress must reconcile the House and Senate versions, resolve the duty-of-care dispute, and address the constructive knowledge standard that underpins all four titles.

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