Committee hears supporters of Kids Online Safety Act resolution; members press sponsors on privacy and enforcement

Representative Ted Eischeid introduced House Joint Resolution 28 to the Senate Education Committee on May 15, asking Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (Senate Bill 1748) and describing key protections the sponsors say the bill would create for minors.

Eischeid said the bill ‘‘establishes a duty of care for internet service platforms’’ and would require platforms to include features that protect minors’ data, enable permanent deletion of accounts and associated data for minors, offer opt‑outs for marketing algorithms, disable addictive product features and default to the highest privacy settings for users 16 and under.

During committee questions, Sen. Kiel and other members raised practical concerns about implementation: how platforms or external archives (e.g., the Internet Archive) could support a true permanent deletion and how age verification could be performed without creating new privacy harms. Michael Busey, staff to Rep. Eischeid, acknowledged those challenges but said the bill contains task‑force language and reporting requirements intended to develop best practices and that the bill limits what additional information would be required for age verification.

Busey and the sponsor also noted amendments intended to address First Amendment and viewpoint‑based enforcement concerns; they cited section 102.b that ‘‘states nothing in this section shall be construed to allow a government entity to enforce … based on the viewpoint of users’’ and said FTC oversight and judicial review would be avenues to guard against overly restrictive enforcement.

The committee took no public testimony on the resolution and voted by unanimous consent to report HJR 28 from committee with individual recommendations and an attached fiscal note.

What’s next: HJR 28 was reported from the Senate Education Committee and will appear in committee reports for further consideration by the legislature.