US Senate Panel Passes Children Online Safety Act With Duty of Care Provision

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) advanced through a procedural vote in the US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on August 5, 2026. The bill seeks to establish protections for minors' internet use by creating parental control mechanisms and studying the impact of social media on children's wellbeing. Introduced by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and supported by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the legislation currently has 76 co-sponsors in the Senate.

The House passed a version in June 2026 that did not include the duty of care provision, drawing criticism from Senate sponsors. Blackburn and Blumenthal said in a joint statement that the House's removal of the duty of care clause would preserve the status quo, allowing big technology companies to continue treating children as profit.

The bill passed the committee alongside several other measures targeting child online safety, including one requiring artificial intelligence companies to implement privacy protections for their online chatbots. Multiple versions of the legislation have been debated in Congress in recent years; the Senate passed one version in 2024, but differences between the two chambers have consistently prevented the bill from reaching the president's desk.

The committee vote came a day before senators were set to begin their August recess, leaving little legislative time before the November midterm elections and putting pressure on the bill's progress. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, said the bill had again passed the committee unanimously, and he expressed confidence it would pass a full Senate floor vote and continue negotiations with the House to complete the legislative process.