House Commerce Committee Advances Bills to Protect Children Online

Lawmakers advanced the bills in hopes of securing a floor vote before the November election.

Supporters of the Kids Online Safety Act at a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 31, 2024. Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Accountable Tech

The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced two bills on Sept. 18 that would help to protect children’s safety and privacy online.

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would require social media companies to improve their platform designs to prevent physical violence, sexual exploitation, and the promotion of narcotic drugs.

Another bill, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, would expand the age limit for protected minors from 13 to 16 and require social media platforms to obtain consent from users aged 13 to 16 before collecting their personal information. It would also ban advertising targeting children and teens.

Both bills were passed in the Senate by a vote of 91–3 at the end of July. The White House has said the measures would “finally advance bold actions to hold Big Tech accountable.” It urged Congress to send them to the president’s desk “without delay.”

KOSA’s House version differs from the Senate version by removing key measures that would hold tech companies accountable, including making them responsible for implementing design features to prevent or reduce “patterns of use that may indicate or encourage addiction-like behaviors” in child users, and for preventing the spread of harmful content such as content relating to suicide, eating disorders, bullying, and drugs, on their sites.

Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) introduced the initial version in April, with Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), and Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) as original co-sponsors. The committee reviewed an updated version that included an amendment by Bilirakis.

Castor, one of the original sponsors of the KOSA bill, called the updated House version “weakened” compared to what the Senate passed in July.

“We can’t allow unintended consequences to creep in because there were politics played with KOSA here at the 11th hour,” she said at the committee meeting on Sept. 18. “I don’t know that I could support this version if it comes to the House floor in this manner.”

She expressed hope that the bill’s language may be changed. “I think in the spirit of what we need to do as responsible legislators, we should go ahead and move this forward today with the understanding that we probably need to move towards the Senate version of the bill and not go backward at this time,” she said.

Other Republican lawmakers expressed the same sentiment—advance the bill out of the Committee to secure a chance to be considered by the leadership for a floor vote.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) supported KOSA and said it has “some good provisions” that give parents tools to guide their children’s social media use.

However, he is concerned that the bill would give the Federal Trade Commission too much authority, as the agency would have the power to regulate how social media companies design their algorithms. In his view, algorithm and content go hand in hand, and thus algorithm regulations will almost inevitably spill over to affect content moderation.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, has raised concerns that government officials would have “dangerous and unconstitutional power” over legal online content if it were deemed harmful. The organization said Bilirakis’s amendment to the original Senate bill doesn’t fully address this issue.

A day before the committee meeting, Meta announced new accounts for teenagers on its platform Instagram that would provide stricter safety measures and require parents’ permission to change the default settings to be less strict.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in an advisory last year that excessive use of social media might lead to anxiety and depression. In June, he called for a warning label on social media platforms, similar to those on tobacco products.

Three of four voters support requiring a social media warning label, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on June 26.

If enacted, KOSA would authorize the warning proposed by Murthy.