Kids Online Safety Act
What does the Kids Online Safety Act do?
S 1748 is a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). The Kids Online Safety Act puts a legal duty on social platforms, online video games, messaging apps, and video streaming services that minors are likely to use: they must take reasonable care in how they design features so those features do not push minors toward a listed set of harms, and they must give minors and parents built-in safety controls that start on the most protective setting. Platforms averaging more than 10,000,000 monthly U.S. users would also have to publish a yearly report based on an outside audit, and a separate title would require any online platform using a personalized ranking algorithm to let users switch to one that does not use data about them. Creates a federal duty of care over how covered platforms design features that affect minors, plus default-on safeguards, parental tools, audited annual transparency reports for the largest platforms, and an opt-out from personalized ranking algorithms.
Did S 1748 pass? Where it stands
As of August 27, 2026, S 1748 has reached the In Committee stage.
Status: In Committee
Outlook: Possible
Key provisions
- Duty of Care Over Design Features
- Reasonable care in creating design features to prevent seven listed harms
- Covers compulsive usage, sexual exploitation, and financial harms
- Does not require blocking content a minor independently searches for
- Default Safeguards and Parental Tools
- Safeguards default to the most protective setting for known minors
- Reports on harm answered in 10 days above 10,000,000 monthly users
- No advertising of drugs, tobacco, cannabis, gambling, or alcohol to minors
- Audits, Enforcement, and Algorithm Opt-Out
- Annual third-party audited public report for the largest platforms
- FTC enforces; State attorneys general limited to sections 103 to 105
- Users may switch to a ranking algorithm using no user-specific data
Last updated August 27, 2026