Congress Has an Opportunity to Strengthen Protections for Children Online

This markup represents an important step in advancing legislation aimed at improving the online environments children encounter every day. Throughout this process, Children and Screens has engaged policymakers, providing them with evidence-based insights on how digital platforms affect children’s development, health, and well-being. We remain committed to offering clear, research-informed guidance as these bills continue to move through the House and the Senate. 

The KIDS Act contains several important protections, including stronger default safeguards for minors and greater user control over the content young people encounter online. At the same time, the legislation does not yet fully address many of the risks to children that scientific research has increasingly identified. 

Additionally, we commend the Senate’s passage this morning of the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). We also welcome the Energy and Commerce Committee’s decision to continue their bipartisan discussions on this legislation to further strengthen the privacy protections for children and teens online in COPPA 2.0. 

Children and Screens looks forward to continuing to work with lawmakers to strengthen these protections for children and ensure that policies reflect the best available evidence. With thoughtful action, Congress has an opportunity to help create digital environments that better protect children’s safety, privacy, and healthy development.