On May 14, 2025, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), SB 1748, was reintroduced for the fourth time by original sponsor Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), joined by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), John Thune (R-SD), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). First introduced in 2022, and then again in 2023 and 2024, KOSA imposes a duty of care on online platforms (including online gaming, messaging applications, and video streaming services) to minimize harms to minors. The history of various iterations of KOSA is of interest as it reflects the ongoing debate about platform obligations and First Amendment rights of platforms and consumers.

As originally introduced, KOSA mandated that platforms “prevent and mitigate the heightened risks of physical, emotional, developmental, or material harms to minors posed by materials on, or engagement with, the platform.” Business associations, members of Congress, and privacy advocates expressed concern that this standard would violate the First Amendment. In 2024, KOSA was amended to clarify that platforms must exercise reasonable care to mitigate harm to minors in the creation and implementation of design features rather than content. The 2024 version of KOSA also raised the age threshold of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) from 13 to 17 by folding into its provisions COPPA’s potential successor, the proposed Children and Teens’ Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), which also banned targeted advertising to minors under 17. Then renamed The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), the bill passed the Senate overwhelmingly in 2024 with bipartisan support.

In September 2024, a House Energy and Commerce Committee markup amended KOSPA by narrowing the bill’s “duty of care” provisions and list of potential online harms. Nonetheless, these changes were insufficient to convert some members of Congress who remained concerned that KOSPA’s “duty of care” language still violated the First Amendment. An eleventh-hour revision drafted with input from X owner Elon Musk (December 2024 draft) included new language clarifying that KOSPA would not require platforms to “prevent or preclude” minors from conducting independent research or requesting information on prevention or mitigation of harms such as depression, compulsive behavior, addiction, and sexual abuse. In addition, it barred government entities from censoring, limiting, or removing any content from the internet “based upon the viewpoint of users expressed by or through any speech, expression, or information protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” However, the bill did not pass in the House.

SB 1748, again called “KOSA,” reverts to the Senate version as amended by the December 2024 draft, but with a key difference: the COPPA 2.0 provisions were stripped out in their entirety. (COPPA 2.0 was reintroduced as a standalone bill, SB 836, in March this year). Notably, the duty of care language in SB 1748 remains untouched from the December 2024 draft and KOSA’s broad definition of “covered platform” – defined as “an online platform, online video game, messaging application, or video streaming service that connects to the internet and that is used, or is reasonably likely to be used, by a minor” – was left intact.

New Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) Chair Andrew Ferguson has indicated that children’s privacy and protection online is a chief priority for the Commission this year. And, indeed, the FTC seems to be moving in that direction. On January 16, 2025, the Commission announced finalization of the long-awaited update to the COPPA Rule. While subject to the Executive Order requiring a review of rules, the final COPPA Rule was subsequently published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2025. The new COPPA Rule will come into effect on June 23, 2025. Meanwhile, the FTC has scheduled a June 4 workshop, The Attention Economy: How Big Tech Firms Exploit Children and Hurt Families | Federal Trade Commission, which may shed more light on current FTC thinking on issues that KOSA seeks to address.

The revisions included in SB 1748 do not necessarily resolve concerns about impingement on First Amendment rights, among other issues, and the relatively weak conflict preemption clause of KOSA will not result in the withdrawal or elimination of state age-appropriate design code acts and similar laws. Technology industry organizations have challenged state bills that impose similar restrictions and requirements on platforms that KOSA seeks to address with some success. If KOSA does become law, we can expect further legal challenges to be filed.