House committee advances kids’ online safety and privacy proposals

The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a package of bills Thursday that would establish national age verification requirements and create new online safety and privacy protections for children.

Lawmakers voted 28-24, along party lines, to send the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act to the House floor for a full vote.

Republicans brushed aside Democratic opposition during the markup. Democrats argued the bill was too lenient on tech companies and would preempt any state regulations.

Senate versions of the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA 2.0, have bipartisan support, in contrast with the Republican-led House effort.

The committee spent more than two hours debating amendments that Democrats said were needed to strengthen the bill, none of which passed.

“In the past, we have shown that when the stakes are high enough, we can put politics aside and work together, and that is why it is unfortunate the slate of bills today before us is not bipartisan,” Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said in his opening remarks. “But at the end of the day, members of Congress, our responsibility is to our constituents, especially our children.”

Guthrie’s KIDS Act combines about a dozen bills focused on product design standards intended to protect children online, as well as requiring age verification for adult content. It includes the latest version of KOSA.

Democrats and kids’ safety advocates argue the House version of KOSA is weaker than its Senate counterpart because it omits “duty of care” language that would require companies to design products with kids’ safety in mind.

“We want something better, stronger, something that is really relevant to the children that have been lost,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

The package would create new safety settings for children’s accounts, mandatory disclosure for AI chatbots, age verification requirements for sexual material, and directs federal agencies to study social media’s mental health impact.