KIDS Act

This vote bundled more than one measure

This is a bundle, not a single-subject bill. One House vote carried at least thirteen separately titled measures across seven titles: the SCREEN Act (pornography age-gating), the Kids Online Safety Act (platform duties), the SPY Kids Act (a ban on market research targeting minors), the Safer GAMING Act (video-game messaging controls), the SAFE BOTs Act (chatbot rules), four research and education acts (Safe Social Media Act, No Fentanyl on Social Media Act, Assessing Safety Tools for Parents and Minors Act, Promoting a Safe Internet for Minors Act, AWARE Act, Kids Internet Safety Partnership Act), and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act rewriting COPPA plus a new data-broker registry. The coupling point is the stated subject: protecting minors online. The measures are thematically related but legally independent, each imposing distinct obligations on distinct classes of company, and each carrying its own short title, effective date, and severability. A member could not vote on the chatbot rules, the pornography age-gate, and the COPPA rewrite separately.

What this does

The KIDS Act creates federal online-safety duties for services used by minors and rewrites the children's privacy law, bundling at least thirteen separately titled measures into one bill.

House vote · 267-117

Democrats104–85

Republicans162–32

Independents1–0

How we know · 10 sourced claims

Sites where more than one-third of the content is sexual material harmful to minors must, within one year, use age-verification technology to identify minors and block them from that material.Source: Sec. 102(1) (covered platform = more than one-third sexual material harmful to minors); Sec. 103(a) (beginning 1 year after enactment, provider shall adopt technology verification measures to identify minors and prevent them from accessing such material)
The bill states its platform duties impose no duty of care and require no age verification.Source: Sec. 213(c)(2) (nothing shall be construed to impose a duty of care); Sec. 220 (nothing shall be construed to require age gating or age verification functionality); also Sec. 103(f) (no requirement to submit government-issued ID for the pornography-site verification)
Social platforms must keep policies addressing named harms to minors, provide minors and parents with safety controls set to the most protective level by default, run a harm-reporting channel, and undergo annual independent audits.Source: Sec. 213(a) (policies addressing enumerated harms); Sec. 214(a)(3) and 214(b)(5) (default settings set to most protective level for known minors/children); Sec. 215 (reporting mechanism); Sec. 219(a) (independent third-party audit, first within 18 months and annually thereafter)
Online video game providers must give parents default-on controls to limit who can message a minor.Source: Sec. 303(a) (safeguards allowing a parent to limit communication between a covered user and other users); Sec. 303(b)(1)(B)-(C) (enabled by default and set to most protective level by default)
Chatbot providers may not falsely tell a minor the bot is a licensed professional, must disclose the bot is AI and surface a crisis hotline when a minor raises suicide, and must prompt a break after three hours.Source: Sec. 403 (may not state chatbot is a licensed professional unless true); Sec. 404(a)(1)-(2) and 404(b)(2) (disclose AI status; provide crisis hotline resources when user prompts about suicide); Sec. 405(1) (advise a break after 3 hours of continuous interaction)
The bill orders several federal studies and an online-safety education campaign.Source: Sec. 512 (FTC study on social media use by minors); Sec. 514 (report on minors accessing fentanyl); Sec. 517 (HHS/NIH 4-year longitudinal chatbot study); Sec. 522 (amends Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act to create a public awareness and educational campaign)
The bill amends COPPA to define teen as ages 14 through 17, extend protections to teens, ban targeted advertising to children and teens, and add a should-have-known knowledge standard.Source: Sec. 602(a)(7) adding para (17) (teen = attained age 14 and under age 18, i.e., 14 through 17); Sec. 602(b)(2)(A) new 1303(a)(1)(B) (unlawful to collect/use minor data for individual-specific advertising to children or teens); Sec. 602(a)(7) adding para (20) (knowledge = actual knowledge or should have known)
The bill creates a federal registry of data brokers handling minors' data, with an annual registration fee of at least $22,500.Source: Sec. 612(a) (covered data brokers shall register with the Commission); Sec. 612(b) (Commission shall establish a searchable public registry); Sec. 612(c) (annual registration fee of at least $22,500)
The FTC and state attorneys general enforce the Act, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has exclusive jurisdiction over constitutional challenges.Source: Sec. 701(a) (enforcement by the Commission as an unfair or deceptive practice); Sec. 701(b) (actions by States via state attorneys general); Sec. 702 (D.C. District Court has exclusive jurisdiction over constitutional challenges)
One House vote carried at least thirteen separately titled measures across seven titles, coupled by the stated subject of protecting minors online.Source: Sec. 1(b) table of contents (Titles I-VII); short titles at Sec. 19 (KIDS Act), 101 (SCREEN Act), 211 (KOSA), 231 (SPY Kids Act), 301 (Safer GAMING Act), 401 (SAFE BOTs Act), 511 (Safe Social Media Act), 513 (No Fentanyl on Social Media Act), 515 (Assessing Safety Tools for Parents and Minors Act), 521 (Promoting a Safe Internet for Minors Act), 523 (AWARE Act), 525 (Kids Internet Safety Partnership Act), 601 (Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act)

Read the bill on congress.gov ↗

Your representatives

How did your member vote on this?

House roll call

The full roll call

R162–32D104–85I1–0

Position

Party

State

Republicans

218

Democrats

212

Independents

YeaKevin KileyCA · District 3