"On March 4, the App Store Accountability Act passed 26-23 out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The following day, the same committee advanced the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act-a package including the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)-to the full House floor in a party-line 28-24 vote. Meanwhile, the Senate simultaneously passed Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) 2.0 unanimously."
"The pressure on social media companies to do something about minors on their platforms long predates either act. Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube have faced years of congressional hearings, state attorneys general investigations, and now a mounting wave of personal injury litigation alleging their platforms knowingly exposed children to harmful content and addictive design features."
"The industry's self-regulatory response -age minimums set at 13, parental control settings buried in app menus, terms of service that minors routinely circumvent-has satisfied almost no one. What's changed in 2026 is that lawmakers have stopped waiting for the industry to find them."
Congress made unprecedented progress on child online safety in March 2026, with the House Energy and Commerce Committee passing the App Store Accountability Act and advancing the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) within 48 hours, while the Senate unanimously passed COPPA 2.0. Social media platforms including Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube face mounting pressure from congressional hearings, state investigations, and litigation over harmful content and addictive design features targeting minors. Industry self-regulatory measures like age minimums and parental controls have proven ineffective. Two distinct legislative approaches now target the problem from different angles, requiring companies to balance privacy protections against safety mandates while a federal court simultaneously raised constitutional concerns about the regulatory framework.
#child-online-safety-legislation #social-media-regulation #privacy-vs-safety #congressional-oversight #platform-accountability
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