House passes bipartisan child online safety package

The House of Representatives on Monday night advanced the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, approving requirements for specific online platforms to increase parental controls and institute age verification. The lower chamber passed the KIDS Act using a fast-tracking process requiring a two-thirds majority vote. Lawmakers approved the measure in a 267-117 vote with 47 abstentions. A total of 32 Republicans and 85 Democrats opposed the package.

The measure is now headed to the Senate for its consideration.

What would the bill require if passed by the Senate?

• Publicly available pornographic sites would be required to use age-verification technology to identify minors and block them from accessing harmful sexual content.

• Social media platforms would have to limit children’s time on their sites and the children’s ability to message other users. They would have to allow children to use disappearing messages. They would have to provide parents with the ability to manage privacy and account settings.

• Online video game platforms would be required to provide parents with ways to limit communication between children and other platform users, as well as ways to restrict purchases.

• Artificial intelligence chatbot sites would be mandated to explain to child users that the bots are not human and provide suicide and crisis intervention hotline information.

• The bill also would call for studies and reports on the effects of social media platforms on minors, and empower the Federal Trade Commission to help enforce its provisions.

What do we know about the bill’s likelihood of surviving the Senate? The measure is expected to face pushback from senators who support the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA—an alternate plan that some lawmakers have supported for years. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., are among those who argue for KOSA’s “duty of care” provision to require platforms to prevent children from seeing content related to suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders. Blumenthal on Tuesday criticized the KIDS Act for lacking such a provision, saying the bill created undue burdens while failing to meet the needs of the moment.

The bill’s provision requiring age verification for pornographic sites is also controversial, with some lawmakers and lobbyists arguing that it opens the door for the federal government to collect data for facial recognition and identification.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on Australia’s steep penalties for violating its child social media ban.