The Senate Commerce Committee Just Revived a Sweeping Kids Internet Bill. Could Your Family Be Affected?

The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously voted Wednesday to advance the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), reviving one of Congress' highest-profile efforts to strengthen protections for children online after the legislation stalled in the House last year.^[1]

The bipartisan bill would require covered online platforms to implement new safeguards for minors, including stronger default privacy settings, parental controls and tools to reduce exposure to harmful content and addictive platform features.

However, lawmakers stopped short of advancing a separate age-verification proposal after the committee failed to reach a quorum.

The committee's action sends KOSA to the full Senate for consideration, where lawmakers are expected to continue negotiating differences with a broader House-passed child online safety package that omitted one of the Senate bill's central provisions: a legal "duty of care" requiring platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent harm to minors.

"We're sending a message to Big Tech that the era of Big Tech profiting off of our children is over," Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said during Wednesday's markup.

Blackburn also acknowledged that the Senate bill differs significantly from the House-passed package, arguing the House version is "toothless" because it omits KOSA's "duty of care" provision, which requires covered platforms to take reasonable measures to prevent and mitigate harms to minors.

Thanks for subscribing!

Please check your email for your first message.

Never miss the privacy news that affects you.

Join thousands who get the latest security news, scams, and policy changes every week, right to their inbox.

Sign me up

By submitting this form you agree to receive emails from All About Cookies and to the privacy policy and terms.

What’s going on?

Efforts to regulate children's online safety have been building in Congress for years as lawmakers grapple with how to better protect minors without unnecessarily expanding data collection or restricting lawful speech.

Much of that debate has centered on KOSA, a bipartisan proposal designed to require covered online platforms to provide stronger safeguards for minors, expand parental controls, and curb design features that encourage compulsive use.

While the legislation has attracted bipartisan support in previous sessions of Congress, disagreements over platform liability, content moderation, and user privacy prevented it from becoming law.

What KOSA changes

KOSA will require covered online platforms to build additional safeguards into their services for users under 17, with an emphasis on privacy, parental oversight, and limiting features lawmakers say contribute to harmful online experiences.

The bill requires platforms to provide minors with "readily accessible and easy-to-use safeguards" that allow them to control who can communicate with them, prevent other users from viewing their personal information, restrict the sharing of their geolocation, and manage personalized recommendation systems.

It also requires "a prominently displayed option" allowing users to opt out of algorithmic recommendations while still viewing content in chronological order.

KOSA also seeks to curb design features lawmakers say encourage excessive screen time. Under the bill, covered platforms must "limit by default design features that encourage or increase the frequency, time spent, or activity of minors," including "infinite scrolling, auto-playing, rewards for time spent on the platform, notifications, and other design features that result in compulsive usage."

The legislation would further require platforms to default many of these protections to "the most protective level of control" for minors unless a parent affirmatively changes those settings.

Parents would also gain additional oversight tools. Covered platforms would be required to provide "readily accessible and easy-to-use parental tools" that allow parents to manage a child's privacy and account settings, restrict purchases and financial transactions where applicable, and monitor or limit the amount of time their child spends on the platform. For younger users, those parental controls would be enabled by default.

Finally, KOSA would prohibit platforms from using so-called dark patterns to discourage users from enabling or maintaining these protections. Specifically, platforms could not design interfaces that "obscure, subvert or impair user autonomy, decision-making, or choice" with respect to the safeguards and parental controls required under the legislation.

Why critics are concerned

While many privacy advocates support stronger protections for children online, some argue KOSA could still create unintended consequences for user privacy and online speech.

One of the bill's most debated provisions is its "duty of care," which requires covered platforms to take reasonable measures to prevent and mitigate harms to minors. Supporters say the requirement would encourage companies to prioritize children's safety over engagement-driven features, while critics argue it could incentivize platforms to remove more lawful content or collect additional information about users to determine whether they are minors.

The committee's consideration of a separate age-verification proposal highlighted those concerns. Although lawmakers unanimously advanced KOSA, they did not move forward with the age-verification bill after failing to reach a quorum.

Broad age-verification requirements could require platforms to collect government-issued IDs, facial scans, or other sensitive personal information, creating new privacy and cybersecurity risks if that data is retained or exposed in a breach.

What happens next?

The committee's vote does not make KOSA law.

The bill must still pass the full Senate before lawmakers can begin reconciling it with the broader child online safety package previously approved by the House.

Because the two chambers passed different versions of the legislation — including differing approaches to the "duty of care" provision — Congress would need to agree on a final version before it could be sent to President Donald Trump for his signature.

What can consumers do to protect their privacy?

Regardless of whether KOSA ultimately becomes law, consumers can take steps to reduce the amount of personal information they share online:

• Enable the strongest privacy settings available. Many platforms allow users to limit profile visibility, restrict personalized advertising, and reduce data sharing.
• Share only what's necessary. If a service requests identity documents or biometric information for age verification, review its privacy policy to understand what information is collected, how long it's retained, and whether it's deleted after verification.
• Use parental controls where appropriate. Built-in controls on smartphones, gaming consoles, and operating systems often allow parents to manage screen time, app downloads, and content without sharing additional information with multiple third parties.
• Review app permissions regularly. Remove unnecessary access to your camera, microphone, contacts, and precise location.
• Use unique passwords and multi-factor authentication. Even if a service experiences a breach, strong account security can reduce the risk of account takeover.
• Monitor policy updates. If new child safety laws take effect, platforms may change their data collection or verification practices. Reviewing updated privacy policies can help users understand what information is being collected and why.

Author Details

Thomas Kent

About the Author

Thomas Kent is a multi-disciplined reporter with over a decade of experience covering online platforms, digital trends, and consumer-facing tech. Tom focuses on digital privacy, data tracking, and user behavior, with a particular interest in how cookies, online surveillance, and platform design shape the modern internet experience. His reporting takes a research-driven, news-focused approach, translating complex technical topics into clear, accessible insights.