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Kids Online Safety Act

H.R. 7891 Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12) In committee
Bill text PDF
  1. Introduced Apr 9
  2. Committee Apr 9
  3. Passed House Next
  4. Passed Senate Not yet
  5. To President Not yet
  6. Law Not yet
Where it stands
In committee, Apr 9, 2024Next: House vote
770d ago Sep 18, 2024: Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote.
Final votes
No roll callsNo recorded vote on this bill yet
Lobbying
18companies, 29 filings
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Member trades
58trades in the last 90 days
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Companies lobbying on this bill

18 companies
Companies by sector
Technology & Software 12Communications & Media 5Other 1
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Summary

The Kids Online Safety Act aims to protect children on the internet by imposing duties on online platforms to prevent harm to minors, requiring safeguards, disclosures, and transparency, and establishing a council and studies on related issues. Title I, Kids Online Safety: Defines key terms like 'child' (under 13) and 'covered platform' (online services likely used by minors, with exceptions for common carriers, email, and certain messaging services). It imposes a duty of care on high-impact online companies to prevent harms like mental health disorders, compulsive usage, violence, sexual exploitation, and promotion of drugs or alcohol to minors, while allowing minors to deliberately search for content. It requires covered platforms to provide minors with safeguards to limit communication, addictive design features (e.g., infinite scrolling), and personalized recommendations, with default settings at the most protective level. Platforms must disclose policies and obtain parental consent for children before use. Large platforms (over 10 million monthly users) must annually publish a third-party audit report on risks to minors. The FTC must contract with the National Academy of Sciences for at least five studies on social media harms to minors. The FTC, with the Commerce Secretary, must issue guidance for market research on minors. The Commerce Secretary must study age verification systems at the device or operating system level. The FTC must issue guidance on identifying harmful design features and best practices. Violations are treated as unfair or deceptive acts enforced by the FTC, and state attorneys general can sue for violations of safeguards, disclosure, or transparency sections. A Kids Online Safety Council is established to advise on risks and mitigation. The title takes effect 18 months after enactment and does not require affirmative collection of age data or age gating. Title II, Filter Bubble Transparency: Defines 'algorithmic ranking system' and 'input-transparent algorithm' (which does not use user-specific data). It requires operators of online platforms using 'opaque algorithms' (which use user-specific data) to provide clear notice to users and allow them to view content without algorithmic manipulation. Title III, Relationship to State Laws: States that the Act preempts conflicting state laws but does not prohibit states from enacting laws providing greater protection to minors.

Summary of the bill text as introduced in House (Apr 9, 2024), generated by SecBot from the official bill text; the Library of Congress summary is not yet published.

Official record from Congress.gov, the House Clerk and the Senate; lobbying from Lobbying Disclosure Act filings. Updated Oct 28, 2026.