WASHINGTON, DC (June 25, 2026) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) called the updated “Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act” (KIDS Act H.R. 7757) a Trojan horse for Big Tech and urged the U.S. House to reject this bill, which is reportedly being considered for a House floor vote next week on suspension.
“Not only does the updated KIDS Act simply not protect children whatsoever – it is a Trojan horse for giving Big Tech even greater protections from accountability for the harms their platforms inflict on children,” said Dani Pinter, Chief Legal Officer and Director of the Law Center, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“The KIDS Act, which is a package of several online child safety bills, includes broad preemption language that would not only invalidate state online child protection laws, but would also block child victims, parents, and state attorneys general from pursuing state law claims against harmful platforms. This is a slap in the face to victims who are finally seeing courtroom victories for the first time in 30 years. The bill also strips the crucial ‘Duty of Care’ provision from the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the main legal obligation to get tech platforms to design their products safely by default. The KIDS Act will harm children by cementing, and even expanding, Big Tech’s immunity which provides them cover to prioritize profits over safety. This is fundamentally unjust.
“Previously, a strong version of the Kids Online Safety Act passed the Senate 91-3 with strong bipartisan support. That bill, which actually provides meaningful benefits to children via a legally actionable ‘Duty of Care,’ would require tech platforms to take ‘reasonable care’ in the platform’s design to prevent and mitigate certain defined harms to children. The House should tackle online child safety by passing the Senate version, not the harmful KIDS Act.”
Major problems with the KIDS Act:
–> It includes a warped version of the Kids Online Safety Act which strikes any meaningful protections, including the crucial Duty of Care. It also weakens KOSA’s protections against addiction/compulsive use and exempts certain dangerous platforms from the bill (e.g. gaming platforms, messaging apps, video chat services).
–> It includes broad and confusing “pre-emption” language which could ban states from passing meaningful child online safety laws, and even eliminate current state laws. But even worse, this preemption language is so broad it would likely eviscerate the ability of child victims, parents, and state AGs to bring state court actions against harmful platforms—the only strategy that has actually seen meaningful victories against big Tech.
–> Its “protections” regarding AI chatbots are effectively meaningless, amounting to a soft suggestion that a child take a break after 3 hours of staring at a screen, and a disclosure that that chatbot is AI, not a real person. Further, those weak provisions only apply if a chatbot provider knows the user on the other side is a child.
–> The COPPA 2.0 language cements digital adulthood at age 14 by codifying that teens, not parents, have the authority to decide how their personal data is collected, used, maintained, and disclosed, and creates barriers to mandatory age verification. Furthermore, it strips parental consent with regard to technology used in schools and gives school officials, not parents, the right to authorize the collection and use of school children’s data.
–> It also includes major loopholes, including broad protections for the use of full end-to-end encryption, that would allow platforms to avoid nearly any safeguarding responsibilities, especially with regard to the exchange of CSAM via messaging and sextortion, and significantly undermine law enforcement’s ability to combat these crimes.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-profit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
To schedule an interview with NCOSE, please contact press@ncose.com.
