Dive Brief:
- Three bills aiming to protect children and teens online advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday after more than five hours of heated debate between Republican and Democrat lawmakers.
- In a 28-24 roll call vote, the committee advanced one of the key bills — the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, which includes measures from the Kids Online Safety Act. The bill would require online platforms to implement safeguards for minors, for example, by providing “easy-to-use parental tools” and limiting addictive design features.
- The House’s version of another highly anticipated online data privacy bill, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy and Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0, was withheld from the committee markup hearing on Thursday. The delay came after the Senate unanimously passed its own bipartisan version of the bill earlier that day.
Dive Insight:
Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said during the markup that the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act is the “most comprehensive kids online safety package” that the committee has ever advanced. Bilirakis spearheaded the KOSA provision included in the bill.
Within the KIDS Act, Bilirakis said, the KOSA measure would turn off social media algorithms by default for children.
But Democrats pushed back during the markup hearing, saying that the KIDS Act’s preemption measure would prohibit states’ abilities to protect children and teens online through their own stronger regulations.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said these current Republican bills leave a “giant loophole” for big technology companies. The legislations’ knowledge standard, he said, “allows tech companies and companies that collect kids data to continue to claim that they lacked actual knowledge or willfully disregarded knowledge that kids” are on their platforms.
“Republicans are letting Big Tech off the hook by letting them say they don't know they have kids on their platforms,” Pallone said.
The Republican supported measures would also make it more difficult for lawsuits to move forward in seeking to hold tech companies accountable for harming children and teens online, Pallone said.
Both Pallone and committee Chairman Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said they were disappointed that a bipartisan agreement on these bills could not be reached before the markup hearing.
“Algorithms amplify addictive, harmful content, predators explore anonymity, and parents are left trying to navigate a digital world that evolves faster than the safeguards they have at their disposal,” Guthrie said. “Every month we delay, more families experience the kind of devastation that no parent should ever endure.”
A coalition of parents, teachers and technology safety advocates sent a letter to the House committee’s leadership on Thursday ahead of the markup asking them to reject the KOSA measure, citing similar concerns as Democrat lawmakers. They also said that a bipartisan version of the bill that had previously passed in the Senate with 91 votes would be a better alternative.
Other provisions in the KIDS Act would include some new guidelines for artificial intelligence chatbot interactions with users who are minors.
For example, the bill would require AI chatbots to disclose during their first conversations with minors that they are “not a natural person.” The chatbots would also have to provide resources for a suicide and crisis prevention hotline when a minor prompts the AI tool about suicide or suicidal ideation.
The bill would also require AI chatbot providers to encourage minors to take breaks after interacting with a platform for over three hours. AI chatbot systems must also implement “reasonable” policies and procedures for instances where a minor discusses harmful subjects such as access to sexual material or the promotion of gambling, narcotic drugs, tobacco or alcohol.
Roughly 3 in 4 parents, children and teens said they support government oversight of AI, according to a survey released by Common Sense Media on Monday. On top of that, more than 80% support mandatory safety testing before AI tools are available to minors, and that AI and social media companies should be held accountable when their tools “cause serious harm or death” to children and teens.
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