The U.S. House of Representatives passed the repackaged Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) by a vote of 267-117, according to reports. The bill requires age verification for access to adult content and sets new safety rules for minors on social media, as the Senate pushes to hold platforms legally liable for harm to children. The legislation aligns with a broader international trend, following similar moves in the UK, UAE, and Australia.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the repackaged Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) early Tuesday by a vote of 267-117, according to reports from Washington. The bill requires social media platforms and other online services to implement age verification for users seeking access to adult content, and establishes a duty of care requiring platforms to prevent and mitigate specific harms to minors — including bullying, sexual exploitation, and promotion of suicide, eating disorders, or substance abuse.
The legislation now moves to the Senate, where a companion bill would hold platforms civilly and criminally liable for foreseeable harm to children resulting from their design, algorithms, or content-moderation failures. The Senate version also mandates independent audits of platform safety practices.
KOSA has been in development for several years and underwent significant rewrites after critics raised First Amendment and privacy concerns. The current version strips some earlier provisions requiring platforms to 'prevent' broad categories of content, narrowing the duty to specific harms. The bill enjoys bipartisan support, though some progressive groups continue to oppose it as potentially enabling state-level censorship.
The U.S. move follows a broader international trend: as The Zioneer reported, the UK banned under-16s from major platforms starting 2027, the UAE approved a social media ban for children under 15, and Australia tightened its own restriction on minors' access. The trajectory reflects growing global consensus around stricter regulation of children's online activity.
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- StrongUK will ban under-16s from social media platforms starting 2027, Starmer says
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