Overview
- The House approved the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act in a 267-117 vote, which cleared the floor on Monday, June 29 and transmitted a bundled package of child‑safety measures to the Senate.
- The bill combines rules on parental controls, limits on ephemeral messaging for minors, safeguards for AI chatbots and games, a data‑broker registry, auditing and reporting duties, and targeted limits on profiling minors.
- House negotiators removed the Senate’s stronger “duty of care” requirement and rewrote preemption so federal law would set a floor while allowing some states to enact stricter rules, a change that critics say still leaves legal and enforcement questions.
- Privacy and free‑speech groups warned that the bill’s age‑verification incentives and data requirements could push platforms to collect government IDs or biometrics, which would concentrate sensitive identity data and chill anonymous speech.
- Key senators including Marsha Blackburn, Maria Cantwell and Richard Blumenthal have publicly opposed the House text, making a Senate markup, interchamber negotiations and White House involvement likely to determine the bill’s final form.