The kids' online safety push gets more complicated
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Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
Congress is running out of opportunities to pass major kids' online safety and AI legislation this year.
Why it matters: The effort to pair kids' online safety legislation with federal pre-emption of some state AI laws is running into resistance from lawmakers, advocates and administration officials with very different priorities.
- A new move from the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee to advance their own online safety priorities in the annual defense policy bill could further complicate the picture.
Behind the scenes: As Axios previously reported, the White House and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) are working on a compromise that would include some pre-emption of state AI laws in exchange for White House support for the Kids Online Safety Act, the NO FAKES Act and age verification requirements.
- But sources tell Axios that the process is proving difficult.
- The House and Senate remain far apart on key provisions.
- Kids' online safety advocacy groups are uncomfortable with pre-empting state laws.
- Different factions within the White House are divided over how broadly any deal should pre-empt state AI laws.
State of play: The House Energy and Commerce Committee this week unveiled its own compromise on kids' online safety bills, the KIDS Act.
- Its version of KOSA does not include a "duty of care" provision that would require platforms to take reasonable steps to mitigate harms stemming from design features like endless scroll or algorithmic recommendations, a key feature of the Senate's approach.
What they're saying: "Without a duty of care, Big Tech companies will maintain the status quo of putting profit before the safety of our children," Blackburn said in a statement.
- "We cannot leave online child safety to chance, which is why I am grateful the White House has signaled its support for the duty of care."
Context: Blackburn has been very public about working with the White House on this deal and is unlikely to give it up, especially as she looks to cement her legacy in the Senate.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, has its own plans for moving online safety legislation.
- Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are pushing to advance crime and tech safety legislation in the upcoming must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, their offices shared first with Axios.
- Those tech provisions include the DEFIANCE Act to fight nonconsensual, explicit deepfake images and the STOP CSAM Act, which would let victims sue companies that host child sexual abuse material.
- Grassley and Durbin filed the measures as amendments to the NDAA, seeking to advance them through the must-pass legislation. The proposals would still need to be selected for floor consideration and adopted by the Senate before becoming part of the chamber's version of the annual defense policy bill.
"The American people are demanding action to hold tech companies accountable for harming kids. Our bipartisan proposals are common sense, and should be included in the NDAA," Durbin said in a statement.
The bottom line: Washington is running into a familiar problem on tech policy: broad bipartisan interest, but little agreement on what a workable compromise looks like.
- The next few weeks will provide the clearest test yet for whether Congress can advance any kind of kids' online safety legislation this year.
