Congress Wants Answers From Big Tech on Kids’ Online Safety

• Harmful or age‑inappropriate content
• Online exploitation or predatory behavior
• Addictive algorithmic feeds
• Data privacy and targeted advertising concerns

Because voluntary safety measures from tech companies have not fully addressed these concerns, lawmakers are increasingly considering stronger legal requirements for platforms that host minors.

The Federal Legislation Under Debate

Several major federal proposals are driving the political pressure behind the hearing.

Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)

The Kids Online Safety Act has been reintroduced in Congress to create a “duty of care” requiring platforms to mitigate harms to children. A revised version attempts to address concerns about government overreach and First Amendment issues related to speech regulation.

COPPA 2.0

The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act—often called COPPA 2.0—would expand the original 1998 COPPA law. It aims to strengthen protections for minors’ personal data and extend privacy safeguards to teenagers as well as younger children.

Kids Off Social Media Act

Another proposal, introduced in the House in 2026, seeks to limit children’s exposure to harmful social media environments and provide parents and regulators more tools to protect minors online.

Congress has debated these and related bills for years, but disagreements about free speech, privacy rules, age verification, and enforcement authority have slowed final passage.

States Are Moving Faster Than Congress

While federal legislation has stalled, state governments have moved aggressively to regulate social media and youth online safety.

In 2026 alone, lawmakers in roughly 40 states and Puerto Rico introduced nearly 300 bills addressing children’s use of digital platforms. Many proposals focus on:

• Age‑verification requirements
• Parental‑consent rules
• Restrictions on algorithmic or “addictive” features
• Platform liability for harmful content
• Data‑collection limits for minors

These laws have triggered major legal battles. Technology industry groups argue that many state regulations violate First Amendment protections or create privacy risks by requiring identity verification systems. Courts are already reviewing challenges to laws in several states.

TikTok Faces an Additional Layer of Scrutiny

Unlike the other platforms, TikTok is also entangled in national‑security debates over its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

In 2024, Congress passed legislation requiring TikTok to divest from Chinese ownership or face a U.S. ban. Lawmakers argued that Chinese national security laws could allow government access to user data or influence the platform’s algorithms.

To avoid a shutdown in the United States, TikTok reached a restructuring deal backed by the U.S. government in which the platform’s U.S. operations would be controlled by a new joint venture with American investors and oversight safeguards.

However, some lawmakers remain skeptical that the arrangement fully removes ByteDance’s influence. Congressional scrutiny of TikTok therefore spans two issues simultaneously:

• Whether the platform adequately protects children
• Whether its ownership structure creates national‑security risks

These overlapping concerns make TikTok a particularly central focus in upcoming hearings.

Why the Pressure on Big Tech Is Increasing

For major social media companies, the risks now go beyond public criticism. They face growing pressure from several directions at once:

• Congressional investigations and hearings
• Potential new federal regulations
• State‑level laws and lawsuits
• Court challenges involving age verification and platform liability

The Senate’s planned hearing signals that lawmakers are not finished pushing the industry to overhaul how platforms handle youth safety online. Even after multiple rounds of testimony and voluntary platform changes, Congress appears determined to keep the issue at the center of the tech policy debate.