{"id":"87ac4e58ee5efe4c","congress_number":119,"bill_type":"s","bill_number":"1748","title":"Kids Online Safety Act","plain_summary":"Requires online platforms to protect minors through design duties, parental tools, and data safeguards, enforced by the FTC and states. It also requires notice about personalized recommendation algorithms and an option to turn off user-data-driven ranking.","ai_relevance_score":0.65,"topics":["safety","privacy","transparency","liability"],"status":"markup","introduced_at":"2025-05-14","last_action_at":"2026-08-05","last_action_text":"Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.","sponsor_id":"B001243","full_text_url":null,"created_at":"2026-09-08T22:53:58.186Z","updated_at":"2026-09-09T02:08:29.132Z","ai_reasoning":null,"reported_at":"2026-08-05","passed_house_at":null,"passed_senate_at":null,"became_law_at":null,"recorded_votes":[],"classifier":null,"url":"https://whovotedwhy.com/bills/87ac4e58ee5efe4c","congress_gov_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1748","sponsor":{"id":"B001243","bioguide_id":"B001243","first_name":"Marsha","last_name":"Blackburn","full_name":"Marsha Blackburn","party":"R","state":"TN","chamber":"senate","district":null,"title":"Senator","photo_url":null,"twitter_handle":"MarshaBlackburn","official_website":"https://www.blackburn.senate.gov","fec_candidate_ids":["H2TN06030","S8TN00337"],"lis_id":"S396","is_active":true,"term_start":"2025-01-03","term_end":"2031-01-03","created_at":"2026-09-08T22:51:51.014Z","updated_at":"2026-09-09T02:08:13.531Z"},"roll_calls":[],"citing_statements":[{"id":"d9fde3cf7c303acc","politician_id":"B001243","type":"press_release","content":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. – U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter to TikTok regarding a recent report that the social media company endangered children by knowingly withholding an algorithmic safety measure from millions of American users to determine whether the safeguard would reduce engagement on its platform.\n\nIn the letter, Senator Blackburn and Senator Blumenthal requested a prompt response to a detailed list of questions, including whether TikTok conducted a risk assessment before the experiment, what the results of the experiment were, and how many U.S. users TikTok has placed in experiments that withheld safety features. Senator Blackburn and Senator Blumenthal’s Kids Online Safety Act would require social media platforms like TikTok to design their products with child safety in mind.\n\nNew Report Reveals TikTok Conducted Harmful Experiment on 15 Million U.S. Users\n\n“According to reports, TikTok developed changes to its recommendation algorithm intended to prevent users from being repeatedly and intentionally exposed to potentially harmful content, including videos concerning sadness, loneliness, extreme dieting, and other sensitive subjects. In December 2021, TikTok publicly announced that it was testing ways to avoid recommending clusters of similar content that could be harmful when viewed repeatedly. TikTok did not disclose, however, its depraved decision to intentionally withhold these protections from approximately 10 percent of its U.S. users—a control group that reportedly represented approximately 15 million Americans at the time… TikTok appeared fixated on whether the safety measure would affect user engagement or the ‘stickiness’ of the platform —trying to put the price tag on safety. Even more troubling, this control group, presumably intentionally, included minors.”","url":"https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2026/8/blackburn-blumenthal-press-tiktok-for-intentionally-withholding-safety-features-from-children","published_at":"2026-08-20","ai_topics":["children","safety","transparency","regulation"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Blackburn demands TikTok answer for withholding algorithmic safety protections from children and backs the Kids Online Safety Act requiring platforms to design recommendation systems with child safety in mind.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["87ac4e58ee5efe4c"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"87ac4e58ee5efe4c","method":"title"}],"classifier":null},{"id":"c8b9570d0cc7df56","politician_id":"T000250","type":"press_release","content":"WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today applauded the Commerce Committee’s unanimous passage of his bipartisan Filter Bubble Transparency Act, which was included in a larger bill to address kids’ safety on the internet. Thune’s bill would make it easier for internet platform users to understand the potential manipulation that exists with secret algorithms and require large-scale platforms to allow those users to consume information outside of that potential manipulation zone or “filter bubble.”\n\n“Consumers deserve more transparency when it comes to how social media and other internet platforms use algorithms to amplify or suppress content on their services,” said Thune. “This bill would help consumers better understand how algorithms are used to select content in their feed and give users more control over what information they are digesting. I’m pleased that the committee has passed my bill as part of the Kids Online Safety Act, and I thank Senator Blackburn for her leadership on this important issue.”\n\nThe Filter Bubble Transparency Act would require large-scale internet platforms to disclose algorithm use to consumers and allow users to view content that has not been curated as a result of a secret algorithm. The bill would also make it unlawful for any person to operate a covered internet platform that uses a secret algorithm unless the platform complies with the two above requirements. The Federal Trade Commission would enforce the legislation’s requirements, and it would be authorized to seek civil penalties for knowing violations.","url":"https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thunes-big-tech-algorithm-transparency-bill-unanimously-approved-by-committee/","published_at":"2026-08-05","ai_topics":["transparency","regulation","children"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Thune touts his Filter Bubble Transparency Act to require platforms to disclose their secret algorithms and offer users un-curated feeds, enforced by the FTC.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["87ac4e58ee5efe4c"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"87ac4e58ee5efe4c","method":"title"}],"classifier":null},{"id":"a21e5ea76f0e4a1d","politician_id":"C001114","type":"press_release","content":"Video of the Senator’s Committee remarks can be found here, and a transcript is below.\n\nAs we all know, the digital world is changing faster than parents can keep up with it. And our kids are growing up in an online environment that barely existed a few years ago.\n\nMy wife and I raised six children, and we thought it was complicated when we raised them. And now I am expecting my 19th grandchild in a couple of weeks, and I can’t fathom what they have to navigate to get through this environment.\n\nThe bills we advanced today are an important step toward giving families the tools and transparency they need to keep their kids safe.\n\nI want to thank the Chairman, Ranking Member Cantwell, and everyone who worked together in good faith to get us here.\n\nI’m especially proud to be a lead cosponsor of the CHATBOT Act with Chairman Cruz and Senators Schatz and Schiff.\n\nChairman Cruz was collaborative throughout this process and incorporated several ideas Senator Schiff and I advanced in our SAFE KIDS Act.\n\nI’m also proud to partner with Senator Lee on the SCREEN Act and commit to work with him and my other colleagues to advance that to the Senate floor.\n\nWe have to get this right.\n\nThat means protecting children without stifling innovation, empowering parents without leaving them on their own, and writing laws that will still make sense years from now.\n\nBut our work isn’t finished today.\n\nI’m continuing to push to advance bipartisan bills from my colleagues and me to hold platforms accountable for the harm their products create, help users distinguish authentic content from AI slop, and close loopholes that allow youth to access content they shouldn’t see.\n\nParents shouldn’t have to carry this burden alone.\n\nPlatforms have a responsibility, Congress has a responsibility, and we should keep working together to build a safer digital world for our kids.\n\nToday’s votes are meaningful progress, but they’re not the finish line.\n\nBackground:\n\nThe Committee passed the Kids Online Safety Act; Youth AI Privacy Act; CHATBOT Act; and Children’s Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act of 2026. Included in the CHATBOT Act were several key provisions from Curtis’ bipartisan SAFE KIDS Act, introduced with Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA).\n\nThe provisions adopted from the SAFE KIDS Act include:\n\nRequiring AI chatbots to provide regular, clear disclosures reminding users that they are interacting with artificial intelligence—not a real person;\n\nProhibiting AI chatbot providers from materially assisting a minor in planning or attempting suicide;\n\nProhibiting AI chatbot providers from providing obscene material to minors; and\n\nRequiring AI chatbot providers to notify a parent or guardian, as soon as feasibly possible, if a minor asks about committing suicide, while also directing the minor to external crisis resources.\n\nIn addition, several other priorities championed by Senator Curtis in the SAFE KIDS Act were advanced through Senator Ed Markey (D-MA)’s Youth AI Privacy Act, including:\n\nA prohibition on advertising to children through AI chatbots;\n\nRestrictions preventing companies from processing or transferring children’s data for targeted or behavioral algorithmic purposes; and\n\nWhistleblower protections to encourage employees to report violations and protect those who expose harmful practices.\n\nTogether, these provisions represent significant bipartisan progress toward establishing stronger safeguards for children online, increasing transparency around AI systems, strengthening parental awareness, and protecting young users from harmful or exploitative practices.","url":"https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/committee-advances-curtis-priorities-to-strengthen-online-safety-for-children","published_at":"2026-08-05","ai_topics":["children","safety","regulation","transparency","privacy"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Curtis touts committee passage of AI chatbot and kids' AI safety bills requiring disclosures, parental notification, and privacy protections, while saying rules must protect children without stifling innovation.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["a4a5a5253240cbbd","c662dd8495651739","87ac4e58ee5efe4c"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"a4a5a5253240cbbd","method":"title"},{"bill_id":"c662dd8495651739","method":"title"},{"bill_id":"87ac4e58ee5efe4c","method":"title"}],"classifier":null},{"id":"59ddeeed689f4c22","politician_id":"H001104","type":"press_release","content":"“We need to protect children in the digital world the same way we do in the physical world.”\n\nWASHINGTON – Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) joined Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) in introducing the Children Harmed by AI Technology (CHAT) Act 2.0. This bipartisan bill builds off Husted’s previous CHAT Act, establishing a federal framework to protect minors from harms associated with companion artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots through a tiered, risk-based approach.\n\nThe bipartisan CHAT Act 2.0 would also prohibit AI companion chatbots from engaging in harmful behaviors with minors, including encouraging self-harm, generating sexual content, impersonating humans or licensed professionals and engaging in emotionally manipulative or romantic interactions.\n\n“We need to protect children in the digital world the same way we do in the physical world. As AI becomes more advanced and more accessible, we have a responsibility to make sure these tools are not exposing children to dangerous, manipulative or inappropriate interactions. The CHAT Act 2.0 would put guardrails in place to keep parents informed, protect children from harm and ensure their safety comes before unchecked technology,” said Husted.\n\n“We all just want peace of mind that our kids will be okay growing up in this era of algorithms and AI. That’s why we need guardrails in place to keep up with ever-evolving technology like chatbots and make sure our kids’ safety, mental health, and well-being are always put first,” said Kim.\n\nThe CHAT Act 2.0 would:\n\nRequire age assurance and parental involvement, including parental controls and notification if a minor expresses suicidal ideation.\n\nMandate clear disclosures that chatbots are not human, establish use limits and break reminders, implement crisis referral protocols and prohibit AI from providing crisis counseling to minors.\n\nImpose stronger safeguards on higher-risk systems, including limits on memory, professional supervision for therapeutic AI and pre-deployment risk assessments.\n\nInclude strong data privacy protections and enforcement authority for the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.\n\nCreate a three-tier framework that applies appropriate safeguards based on a chatbot’s intended purpose:\n\nEducational chatbots,\n\nCompanion chatbots,\n\nHealth chatbots.\n\nIn September 2025, Husted introduced the initial CHAT Act. The CHAT Act 2.0 is an updated version of this bill, which now includes a tier system that would allow different chatbots to adhere to varying restrictions based on the risk level they present. Additionally, it would address several industry concerns by not including customer service bots or video game-related bots in its definitions. It also includes data privacy protections that are in line with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.\n\nBackground:\n\nAI companion chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate human conversation, either through text or voice.\n\nChatbots have prompted users to engage in self‑harm and exposed minors to adult content. In one Texas case, a Character.AI chatbot encouraged a teenager to kill his parents because they restricted his screen time.\n\nThis bill builds on Husted’s work to protect kids online.\n\nIn March 2026, Husted introduced Sammy’s Law. This bipartisan bill would empower parents to protect their children on social media platforms by providing them the right to know if their children are engaging in dangerous or risky interactions.\n\nIn January 2026, Husted introduced the bipartisan No Fentanyl on Social Media Act. The bill would direct the FTC to report to Congress on minors’ access to fentanyl through social media, with recommendations to address this growing threat.\n\nIn December 2025, Husted joined the Kids Online Safety Act to protect minors’ personal data on online platforms and implement safety tools for parents and minors to target any harmful online content for children.","url":"https://www.husted.senate.gov/media/press-releases/husted-kim-lead-bipartisan-bill-to-protect-children-from-ai-companion-chatbots/","published_at":"2026-07-29","ai_topics":["children","safety","regulation","privacy"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Husted champions the bipartisan CHAT Act 2.0 to impose a federal risk-based regulatory framework with guardrails on AI companion chatbots used by minors.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["87ac4e58ee5efe4c"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"87ac4e58ee5efe4c","method":"title"}],"classifier":null}],"provenance":{"commit":"38624a3af16ec6b3fff9b27c7d1d9f2cb7fe9152","generated_at":"2026-09-11T15:06:57.105Z","schema_version":2,"manifest":"https://whovotedwhy.com/data/index.json"}}