On June 29, 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act” (the “KIDS Act”), H.R. 7757, by a bipartisan vote of 267 to 117. While the bill faces an uncertain path in the Senate, the strong bipartisan support for the KIDS Act reflects growing momentum for federal online child-safety legislation.
The “KIDS Act”
The KIDS Act is made up of over a dozen previously introduced, standalone child-safety bills. Noteworthy provisions in this 116-page bill include, but are not limited to:
- Expanded COPPA Coverage. Expand the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) to cover children up to age 14 and extend new privacy protections to teens up to age 17, while prohibiting targeted advertising to anyone under 18 based on their personal information. (Title VI, Sec. 602).
- Age Verification. Require websites with a large amount of sexual content to verify that users are not minors using something more than the user simply confirming their age. (Title I, Sec. 103).
- Default Privacy and Security Settings. Direct social media platforms to automatically give minors the strongest privacy and safety settings, including tools to control who can contact them and limit addictive features like endless scrolling. (Title II, Sec. 214).
- Parental Controls. Give parents tools to manage their child’s account settings, limit purchases, and restrict time spent on social media platforms. (Title II, Sec. 214).
- Messaging Safeguards. Prohibit private messaging for minors under 13 and ban messages that disappear for minors under 17, with parental approval required before a teen can message a new contact. (Title II, Sec. 214).
- Advertising Restrictions. Bar social media platforms from conducting market research on known minors or targeting them with advertisements for alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, gambling, and narcotics. (Title II, Secs. 218, 233(a)).
- Video Game Safety. Require online video game companies to provide parental controls starting at the most restrictive settings for chatting, purchases, and time spent on the platform. (Title III, Sec. 303).
- Chatbot Safety. Direct AI chatbot companies to tell minors they are talking to an AI and, if a minor asks about suicide, provide crisis hotline information. (Title IV, Sec. 404).
- Data Broker Accountability. Require data brokers that sell or trade the personal data of known minors to register annually with the FTC and disclose what categories of data they sell. (Title VI, Sec. 612).
- Enforcement and Preemption. Give the FTC and state attorneys general power to enforce the law, while overriding state laws that would weaken its requirements. (Title VII, Sec. 701).
Related Senate Activity
The KIDS Act now moves to the Senate, where the Kids Online Safety Act (the “KOSA”) (S. 1748) has been reintroduced (following its 91-3 passage in the Senate in 2024). The House companion to KOSA, H.R. 6484, was folded into the KIDS Act.
Notably, the KOSA imposes a "duty of care" requirement, under which covered platforms are required to "exercise reasonable care in the creation and implementation of any design feature" to prevent and reduce a broad range of harms to minors. The House companion language incorporated into the KIDS Act is narrower, requiring only that certain platforms adopt "reasonable policies, practices, and procedures" to address a more limited set of harms. The KOSA also includes default privacy and safety settings for minors, parental controls over account settings and screen time, a reporting mechanism for harms, restrictions on targeted advertising for age-regulated products (alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and narcotics), limits on market research involving minors, and annual independent audits for large platforms.
The KOSA and the KIDS Act also take notably different approaches to scope and preemption. The KOSA applies a single set of obligations to a broad class of "covered platforms," which has the practical effect of imposing requirements across all of a company's services, and sets a federal floor that preserves state statutes and common-law tort claims. The KIDS Act takes a more segmented approach, with different provisions applying to specific types of regulated entities and activities, and includes title-by-title preemption provisions that would broadly displace state laws across multiple policy areas.
Conclusion
While the details remain subject to change, the bipartisan momentum behind these proposals suggests that some form of federal legislation is likely on the horizon. Businesses should begin preparing for obligations that reach further into their customer base, as both the KIDS Act and the KOSA apply to minors under age 17, thereby encompassing teenage users who currently fall outside the reach of most existing state and federal children's privacy laws.