Sponsors (77)
Official title: Protect the safety of children on the internet.
Introduced May 14, 2025 by Marsha Blackburn · Last progress May 14, 2025
The bill strengthens protections, transparency, and enforcement to limit harms and commercial targeting of minors online, at the cost of increased compliance, litigation and privacy‑risk tradeoffs that may burden platforms (especially smaller ones) and complicate multi‑state implementation.
Children and their parents gain stronger default protections (limits on autoplay/infinite scroll, time limits, opt-outs from personalized recommendations, geolocation limits, parental controls for streaming) that reduce exposure to harmful or addictive content.
Consumers and parents get more transparency and federal enforcement tools — annual third‑party audited reports about minors' usage, algorithm disclosures and opt‑out options, and clearer FTC enforcement paths — making platform practices more visible and actionable.
Minors are better protected from commercial exploitation because targeted advertising and market research aimed at children are restricted, reducing incentives for deceitful or predatory monetization of youth audiences.
Platform operators — especially small and new entrants — face substantial compliance, engineering, and auditing costs that could raise prices, reduce innovation or features, and erect barriers to entry.
The law creates significant enforcement and litigation uncertainty (over state vs. FTC timing, how platforms prove knowledge of minors, trade secret carve-outs for disclosures), which could produce more lawsuits, inconsistent enforcement, and legal risk for platforms and states.
Sharing detailed platform data with third‑party auditors and new reporting requirements raises privacy and security risks for minors and families if de‑identification or safeguards fail.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Defines covered platforms, limits use of non‑express user data for content ranking, empowers state AGs and the FTC to enforce online safety and algorithm transparency for minors.
Creates federal rules that limit how online platforms can design and present content to children and requires transparency about content‑ranking algorithms. It defines which services count as covered platforms and which are excluded, sets standards about ‘‘compulsive usage’’ and what user data platforms may use to rank content, and designates the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the new rules. Gives state attorneys general the ability to bring civil suits (with notice to the FTC), creates an 11‑member Kids Online Safety Council to advise Congress, and includes a limited federal preemption clause that preserves state laws offering greater protections for minors. The bill is mostly definitional and enforcement-focused and does not include new funding or deadlines.