After years in which children’s online safety bills passed the Senate and then died quietly in the House, the House moved first this time, and immediately reopened the argument that has stalled the effort for half a decade.
On Monday it passed a sweeping youth online safety package by 267 to 117, the first time the full chamber has voted on the question, and it did so by leaving out the one clause the Senate considers the heart of the matter.
The package, the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, bundles more than a dozen bills that members of the Energy and Commerce Committee have worked on for years. Its centrepiece is the Kids Online Safety Act, the measure better known as KOSA, which would require social media companies to set minors’ accounts to the strongest privacy and safety settings by default, expand parental controls, and alter the design features engineered to keep young users scrolling.
The rest of the package reaches into corners the headline bill does not. It would block private messaging for children under 13 and disappearing messages for teens under 17, impose safeguards on minors using AI chatbots and interactive gaming platforms, and require age verification on pornographic websites. Taken together it is the most expansive attempt Congress has made to legislate the experience of being young online.
