Kids Online Safety Package Clears House, Drawing Warnings From Digital Rights and Tech Groups

The House passed a bipartisan package of children’s online safety bills in a 267-117 vote Monday, advancing legislation that supporters say would better protect children online but critics warn could threaten privacy and free expression.

The bipartisan Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, championed by its sponsors as a way to protect children online and hold major technology companies accountable, would require new safety features and parental controls on online platforms, restrict the use of minors’ data for targeted advertising, require age verification for pornography websites and establish new rules governing AI chatbots and online games.

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The House package reflects a narrower approach than the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which was previously approved by the Senate.

House lawmakers removed provisions, including a controversial “duty of care” requirement for online platforms, that supporters said would have more aggressively regulated technology companies.

The KIDS Act, which was introduced in March, gained traction as social platforms face increasing legal pressure to add more safeguards to ensure children’s safety. Rising scrutiny of platforms’ ability to protect children online has fueled a wave of age-verification laws around the world.

Those measures, however, have alarmed privacy advocates, who argue that age-gating the internet would affect all users — not just children.

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“All of these bills degrade privacy and security, materially diminish the First Amendment protections that young people and adults have a full right to as Americans, and bring the United States more in line with a global effort to undermine the free and open internet,” Zach Lilly, NetChoice’s director of government affairs, wrote on X.

He also described the KIDS Act as a “well intentioned bill” but said the “House took a major step in asserting federal influence over online speech.”

The legislation is expected to face hurdles in the Senate, where some members have criticized the House package for omitting KOSA’s duty-of-care provision, arguing it would weaken protections for children.

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