House Advances KIDS Act; Senate Signals Support for Stronger KOSA Provisions

On June 29, the House passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, a bipartisan children’s online privacy package introduced by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) last week. The legislation passed the House in a 267-117 vote following months of negotiations. The compromise package came after the committee approved an earlier version in March that included broad federal preemption language opposed by most Democrats.

The revised package scales back federal preemption by establishing a minimum federal standard for children’s online privacy protections, allowing states to enact stronger, but not weaker, standards. It also consolidates 14 children’s online privacy bills, including the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), COPPA 2.0, the SCREEN Act and the Safe Messaging for Kids Act, among others.

Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)

One of the more notable elements of the KIDS Act is the Kids Online Safety Act. A prior version passed the Senate last Congress but stalled in the House over First Amendment concerns. The new House version has bipartisan support but has already drawn opposition from the Senate sponsors over one key change: removal of the “duty of care” provision, which would have required platforms to exercise reasonable care to prevent harms to minors.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called the House version “dead in the Senate,” and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) warned that without it, “tech companies will maintain the status quo of putting profit before the safety of our children.” Notably, Sen. Blackburn is simultaneously negotiating with the White House on a separate track that would bundle the Senate version of KOSA with federal preemption of state artificial intelligence (AI) laws, a pairing that Meta has endorsed despite prior opposition to KOSA. The House KIDS Act does not include federal preemption language on AI.

Following House passage of the bill, Sens. Blackburn and Blumenthal said, “We will not back down from the fight to pass the stronger, more widely supported version of the Kids Online Safety Act … and we will not greenlight hollow reforms that allow Big Tech’s predatory business model to remain intact.” In response, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) said, “Tell them to pass a bill and then we’ll go to conference.”

Key differences between the House and Senate approaches to children’s online safety and privacy legislation are outlined below:

• Senate KOSA: Includes a duty of care provision and is currently being discussed as part of broader negotiations with the White House over AI legislation, including federal preemption.
• House KIDS Act: A broader legislative package that does not include a duty of care provision and adopts narrower federal preemption for privacy, establishing a federal floor that allows states to enact stronger protections.

Future Outlook

The divergence between the House and Senate approaches complicates the path forward. Despite House passage of the KIDS Act, the Senate remains focused on its own version, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has announced plans for a separate markup by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on kids’ privacy in July.

The remaining differences, particularly over the inclusion of a duty of care provision and whether to link children’s privacy legislation to federal preemption of state AI laws, could complicate efforts to reach agreement, especially with only a few weeks remaining in the legislative calendar.

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