The KIDS Act
Bipartisan Solutions to Keep Children and Teens Safe Online
The Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, or KIDS Act, is bipartisan legislation to protect children and teens online, empower parents, strengthen families, and hold online platforms accountable.
Digital technologies, including social media, online gaming platforms, and AI chatbots, are continuously evolving and can pose substantial risks to kids. The KIDS Act is focused on making sure platforms maximize protections for children and teens by default, giving parents easy-to-use tools and controls, and ensuring that policymakers have the information needed to address new challenges online.
Safety by Default
Platforms must maximize protections for children and teens by default.
The KIDS Act requires platforms to put safeguards in place to address harms to minors, including sexual exploitation and abuse, severe threats of physical violence, financial scams, alcohol, tobacco, narcotic drugs, and gambling.
The bill also limits design features that result in compulsive usage, requires online safeguards to be turned on by default at the most protective level, limits the sharing of geolocation information, prohibits platforms from facilitating the advertisement of illegal products to kids, and restricts platforms from defaulting to personalized, algorithm-driven feeds for minors.
Empowering Parents
Parents should be empowered with easy-to-use tools and controls to protect their kids.
The KIDS Act requires easily accessible parental controls and tools. These tools will help ensure parental oversight of privacy and account settings, in-platform purchases, and risky messaging features.
The bill also provides a centralized interface for parents to manage tools and permissions, making parental controls and parental consent as easy as possible. It also identifies national best practices to ensure the effectiveness of parental controls.
Protecting Kids’ Privacy
Children and teens deserve robust privacy and data security protections fit for the modern internet.
The KIDS Act updates children’s online privacy protections by extending COPPA protections to teens and expanding protections for children. It bans targeted advertising to children and teens, prohibits market and product research on children, guarantees privacy settings are the most protective by default, and increases transparency around data brokers who handle children’s and teens’ data.
Social Gaming Platforms
Online games must lock down risky chat features by default and put parents back in control of who their kids talk to online and what they buy.
The KIDS Act makes safeguards available for parents to activate for their kids on social gaming platforms and ensures minors can communicate safely.
AI Chatbots
Digital technologies, including AI, are continuously evolving and can pose substantial risks to kids.
The KIDS Act addresses risks posed by AI chatbots by requiring AI chatbot companies to tell kids when they are interacting with an AI chatbot, providing minors with access to mental health resources, banning deceptive professional advice, and mandating safeguards for unlawful material for minors and sexual exploitation and abuse.
Age Verification for Pornographic Websites
Children should not be accessing pornographic content, and websites with adult content should have to maintain this basic standard.
The KIDS Act requires pornographic websites to prevent children and teens from accessing obscene content by installing age verification technology, ending an era of simply clicking “I am 18.”
The bill also ensures privacy and data security protections are in place for age verification and avoids any requirement to hand over government-issued identification.
Holding Platforms Accountable
Robust enforcement and oversight are critical to hold online platforms accountable.
The KIDS Act authorizes Federal Trade Commission civil penalties against violators, enables State Attorneys General to enforce the Act, mandates that platforms undergo annual third-party audits to assess kids’ online safety, and requires platforms to implement a reporting mechanism on harms to minors.
Research, Education, and Best Practices
Policymakers must be equipped to address novel challenges, and parents must have the know-how to promote a safer internet for kids.
The KIDS Act establishes nationwide education campaigns on internet and AI chatbot use by minors. It also directs federal agencies to conduct research on social media and fentanyl, the effectiveness of parental controls and tools, chatbots, and minors’ use of social media.
Bottom Line
The KIDS Act is a bipartisan effort to keep children and teens safe online by requiring safety by default, empowering parents with stronger tools and controls, protecting kids’ privacy, addressing emerging risks like AI chatbots, requiring age verification for pornographic websites, and holding Big Tech and online platforms accountable.