United States HR 7891: Kids Online Safety Act

Bill Text

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118TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION H. R. 7891
To protect the safety of children on the internet.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 9, 2024
Mr. BILIRAKIS (for himself, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mrs. HOUCHIN, Ms.
SCHRIER, and Mr. BUCSHON) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to
the Committee on Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To protect the safety of children on the internet.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Kids Online Safety Act’’. 5
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I—KIDS ONLINE SAFETY
Sec. 101. Definitions.
Sec. 102. Duty of care.
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Sec. 103. Safeguards for minors.
Sec. 104. Disclosure.
Sec. 105. Transparency.
Sec. 106. Research on social media and minors.
Sec. 107. Market research.
Sec. 108. Age verification study and report.
Sec. 109. Guidance.
Sec. 110. Enforcement.
Sec. 111. Kids Online Safety Council.
Sec. 112. Effective date.
Sec. 113. Rules of construction and other matters.
Sec. 114. Severability.
TITLE II—FILTER BUBBLE TRANSPARENCY
Sec. 201. Definitions.
Sec. 202. Requirement to allow users to see unmanipulated content on internet
platforms.
Sec. 203. Severability.
TITLE III—RELATIONSHIP TO STATE LAWS
Sec. 301. Relationship to State laws.
TITLE I—KIDS ONLINE SAFETY 1
SEC. 101. DEFINITIONS. 2
In this title: 3
(1) CHILD.—The term ‘‘child’’ means an indi-4
vidual who is under the age of 13. 5
(2) COMPULSIVE USAGE.—The term ‘‘compul-6
sive usage’’ means any response stimulated by exter-7
nal factors that causes an individual to engage in re-8
petitive behavior reasonably likely to cause a mental 9
health disorder. 10
(3) COVERED PLATFORM.— 11
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 12
platform’’ means an online platform, online 13
video game, messaging application, or video 14
streaming service that connects to the internet 15
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and that is used, or is reasonably likely to be 1
used, by a minor. 2
(B) EXCEPTIONS.—The term ‘‘covered 3
platform’’ does not include— 4
(i) an entity acting in its capacity as 5
a provider of— 6
(I) a common carrier service sub-7
ject to the Communications Act of 8
1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) and all 9
Acts amendatory thereof and supple-10
mentary thereto; 11
(II) a broadband internet access 12
service (as such term is defined for 13
purposes of section 8.1(b) of title 47, 14
Code of Federal Regulations, or any 15
successor regulation); 16
(III) an email service; 17
(IV) a teleconferencing or video 18
conferencing service that allows recep-19
tion and transmission of audio or 20
video signals for real-time communica-21
tion, provided that— 22
(aa) the service is not an on-23
line platform, including a social 24
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media service or social network; 1
and 2
(bb) the real-time commu-3
nication is initiated by using a 4
unique link or identifier to facili-5
tate access; or 6
(V) a wireless messaging service, 7
including such a service provided 8
through short messaging service or 9
multimedia messaging service proto-10
cols, that is not a component of, or 11
linked to, an online platform and 12
where the predominant or exclusive 13
function is direct messaging consisting 14
of the transmission of text, photos or 15
videos that are sent by electronic 16
means, where messages are trans-17
mitted from the sender to a recipient, 18
and are not posted within an online 19
platform or publicly; 20
(ii) an organization not organized to 21
carry on business for its own profit or that 22
of its members; 23
(iii) any public or private preschool, 24
elementary, or secondary school, or any in-25
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stitution of vocational, professional, or 1
higher education; 2
(iv) a library (as defined in section 3
213(1) of the Library Services and Tech-4
nology Act (20 U.S.C. 9122(1))); 5
(v) a news or sports news and cov-6
erage website or app where— 7
(I) the inclusion of video content 8
on the website or app is related to the 9
website or app’s own gathering, re-10
porting, or