The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Kids Online Safety Act to the full Senate on August 5, a unanimous vote that moves a major child protection bill closer to a floor vote after it stalled in the House. The measure, known as KOSA, cleared the committee by voice vote with 76 Senate cosponsors backing the legislation, signaling broad bipartisan support for establishing stricter safeguards on social media platforms.
Introduced by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, KOSA aims to protect minors from online harms including suicide promotion, eating disorders, substance abuse, and sexual exploitation. The bill requires social media platforms such as Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok to implement a “duty of care” standard, obligating them to exercise reasonable care when creating and implementing design features that could harm children.
The Senate version includes provisions requiring platforms to provide minors with the most protective privacy and safety settings by default. The bill also addresses artificial intelligence safeguards, prohibiting advertising to minors on chatbots and limiting how long chatbots may retain and use memory from a minor’s interactions, according to the Commerce Committee’s official release.
The legislation has a significant legislative history. A version of KOSA passed the Senate in 2024 with overwhelming bipartisan support, receiving a 91-3 vote. However, disagreements between the two chambers have prevented the bill from reaching the president’s desk. The House passed its own version, the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act (H.R. 7757), on June 29, 2026, but omitted the duty of care provision that Senate sponsors consider essential.
Senators Blackburn and Blumenthal criticized the House version in a joint statement after its passage, stating that stripping out the duty of care “will only maintain the status quo in which Big Tech uses our kids as profit centers and leaves parents to pick up the pieces.” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz expressed confidence in advancing KOSA to the full Senate floor, telling reporters he believes the bill will pass the chamber and that negotiations with the House will eventually produce a final version.
The committee action comes as Congress races against the August recess and limited legislative days before the November midterm elections. Civil liberties organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union have opposed versions of the bill, arguing they could jeopardize user privacy and contribute to government censorship. Despite these concerns, parent advocates and child safety organizations have championed KOSA as a necessary step to address the real risks children face online.
If the Senate passes KOSA and the House and Senate reconcile their differences, it would mark the first major federal child protection law passed in 25 years, according to multiple sources tracking the legislation’s progress.
Sources
- CNBC — Committee vote, bipartisan support, duty of care provision, House version differences, Blackburn and Blumenthal criticism, Cruz’s remarks
- U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation — Official committee action, voice vote advancement, bill provisions on chatbots and AI, Chairman Cruz’s prepared remarks
- K12 Dive — Committee advancement, 76 cosponsors, bipartisan support, bill effects
- Politico — Committee vote details, unanimous advancement
- Congress.gov — Bill text, introduction date (May 14, 2025), committee actions
