II Calendar No. 287 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1409 To protect the safety of children on the internet. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 2, 2023 Mr. BLUMENTHAL (for himself, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. LUJA´N, Mrs. CAPITO, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. CASSIDY, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. ERNST, Mr. PETERS, Mr. DAINES, Mr. HICKENLOOPER, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. WARNER, Mr. SUL- LIVAN, Mr. COONS, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. SCHATZ, Mr. GRASSLEY, Mr. MUR- PHY, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. WELCH, Mr. MARSHALL, Ms. HASSAN, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. CASEY, Mr. RISCH, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mrs. BRITT, Mr. SCOTT of Florida, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. CORNYN, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Mr. WICKER, Mr. KELLY, Mr. MANCHIN, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. CRAPO, Mr. CARPER, Mr. KAINE, Mr. CARDIN, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. THUNE, Ms. WARREN, and Mr. HAWLEY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation DECEMBER 13, 2023 Reported by Ms. CANTWELL, with an amendment [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] A BILL To protect the safety of children on the internet. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 2 •S 1409 RS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 2 ‘‘Kids Online Safety Act’’. 3 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 4 this Act is as follows: 5 Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Sec. 2. Definitions. Sec. 3. Duty of care. Sec. 4. Safeguards for minors. Sec. 5. Disclosure. Sec. 6. Transparency. Sec. 7. Independent research. Sec. 8. Market research. Sec. 9. Age verification study and report. Sec. 10. Guidance. Sec. 11. Enforcement. Sec. 12. Kids online safety council. Sec. 13. Effective date. Sec. 14. Rules of construction and other matters. Sec. 15. Severability. SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6 In this Act: 7 (1) CHILD.—The term ‘‘child’’ means an indi- 8 vidual who is under the age of 13. 9 (2) COMPULSIVE USAGE.—The term ‘‘compul- 10 sive usage’’ means any response stimulated by exter- 11 nal factors that causes an individual to engage in re- 12 petitive behavior reasonably likely to cause psycho- 13 logical distress, loss of control, anxiety, depression, 14 or harmful stress responses. 15 (3) COVERED PLATFORM.— 16 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 17 platform’’ means a social media service, social 18 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 3 •S 1409 RS network, online video game (including edu- 1 cational games), messaging application, video 2 streaming service, or an online platform that 3 connects to the internet and that is used, or is 4 reasonably likely to be used, by a minor. 5 (B) EXCEPTIONS.—The term ‘‘covered 6 platform’’ does not include— 7 (i) an entity acting in its capacity as 8 a provider of— 9 (I) a common carrier service sub- 10 ject to the Communications Act of 11 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) and all 12 Acts amendatory thereof and supple- 13 mentary thereto; 14 (II) a broadband internet access 15 service (as such term is defined for 16 purposes of section 8.1(b) of title 47, 17 Code of Federal Regulations, or any 18 successor regulation); 19 (III) an email service; or 20 (IV) a wireless messaging service 21 provided through the short messaging 22 service or multimedia messaging serv- 23 ice protocols; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 4 •S 1409 RS (ii) an organization not organized to 1 carry on business for its own profit or that 2 of its members; 3 (iii) any public or private preschool, 4 elementary, or secondary school, or any in- 5 stitution of vocational, professional, or 6 higher education; or 7 (iv) a product or service that pri- 8 marily functions as business-to-business 9 software. 10 (4) MENTAL HEALTH DISORDER.—The term 11 ‘‘mental health disorder’’ has the meaning given the 12 term ‘‘mental disorder’’ in the Diagnostic and Sta- 13 tistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, 5th Edi- 14 tion (or the most current successor edition). 15 (5) MINOR.—The term ‘‘minor’’ means an indi- 16 vidual who is under the age of 17. 17 (6) ONLINE PLATFORM.—The term ‘‘online 18 platform’’ means any public-facing website, online 19 service, online application, or mobile application that 20 predominantly provides a community forum for user 21 generated content, including sharing videos, images, 22 games, audio files, or other content. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 5 •S 1409 RS (7) PARENT.—The term ‘‘parent’’ includes a 1 legal guardian or an individual with legal custody 2 over a minor. 3 (8) PERSONAL DATA.—The term ‘‘personal 4 data’’ means information that identifies or is linked 5 or reasonably linkable to a particular minor, includ- 6 ing a consumer device identifier associated with a 7 minor. 8 (9) PERSONALIZED RECOMMENDATION SYS- 9 TEM.—The term ‘‘personalized recommendation sys- 10 tem’’ means a fully or partially automated system 11 used to suggest, promote, or rank information based 12 on the personal data of users. 13 (10) SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE.—The 14 term ‘‘sexual exploitation and abuse’’ means any of 15 the following: 16 (A) Coercion and enticement, as described 17 in section 2422 of title 18, United States Code. 18 (B) Child sexual abuse material, as de- 19 scribed in sections 2251, 2252, 2252A, and 20 2260 of title 18, United States Code. 21 (C) Trafficking for the production of im- 22 ages, as described in section 2251A of title 18, 23 United States Code. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 6 •S 1409 RS (D) Sex trafficking of children, as de- 1 scribed in section 1591 of title 18, United 2 States Code. 3 (11) TARGETED ADVERTISING.— 4 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘targeted ad- 5 vertising’’ means displaying an advertisement to 6 an individual where the advertisement is se- 7 lected based on personal data about the indi- 8 vidual to predict the individual’s preferences 9 and interests. 10 (B) EXCLUSIONS.—Such term does not in- 11 clude— 12 (i) advertising or marketing directed 13 to an individual in response to the individ- 14 ual’s request for information or express se- 15 lection of a product or service; 16 (ii) contextual advertising where an 17 advertisement is displayed to an individual 18 based on the content in which the adver- 19 tisement appears and does not vary based 20 on who the individual is; or 21 (iii) processing personal data solely to 22 measure or report advertising performance, 23 reach, or frequency. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 7 •S 1409 RS SEC. 3. DUTY OF CARE. 1 (a) PREVENTION OF HARM TO MINORS.—A covered 2 platform shall act in the best interests of a user that the 3 platform knows or reasonably should know is a minor by 4 taking reasonable measures in its design and operation of 5 products and services to prevent and mitigate the fol- 6 lowing: 7 (1) Consistent with evidence-informed medical 8 information, the following mental health disorders: 9 anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance use 10 disorders, and suicidal behaviors. 11 (2) Patterns of use that indicate or encourage 12 addiction-like behaviors. 13 (3) Physical violence, online bullying, and har- 14 assment of the minor. 15 (4) Sexual exploitation and abuse. 16 (5) Promotion and marketing of narcotic drugs 17 (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Sub- 18 stances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)), tobacco products, 19 gambling, or alcohol. 20 (6) Predatory, unfair, or deceptive marketing 21 practices, or other financial harms. 22 (b) LIMITATION.—Nothing in subsection (a) shall be 23 construed to require a covered platform to prevent or pre- 24 clude— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 8 •S 1409 RS (1) any minor from deliberately and independ- 1 ently searching for, or specifically requesting, con- 2 tent; or 3 (2) the covered platform or individuals on the 4 platform from providing resources for the prevention 5 or mitigation of suicidal behaviors, substance use, 6 and other harms, including evidence-informed infor- 7 mation and clinical resources. 8 SEC. 4. SAFEGUARDS FOR MINORS. 9 (a) SAFEGUARDS FOR MINORS.— 10 (1) SAFEGUARDS.—A covered platform shall 11 provide an individual that the covered platform 12 knows or reasonably should know is a minor with 13 readily accessible and easy-to-use safeguards to, as 14 applicable— 15 (A) limit the ability of other individuals to 16 communicate with the minor; 17 (B) prevent other users, whether registered 18 or not, from viewing the minor’s personal data 19 collected by or shared on the covered platform, 20 in particular restricting public access to per- 21 sonal data; 22 (C) limit features that increase, sustain, or 23 extend use of the covered platform by the 24 minor, such as automatic playing of media, re- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 9 •S 1409 RS wards for time spent on the platform, notifica- 1 tions, and other features that result in compul- 2 sive usage of the covered platform by the minor; 3 (D) control personalized recommendation 4 systems, including the right to— 5 (i) opt out of such personalized rec- 6 ommendation systems, while still allowing 7 the display of content based on a chrono- 8 logical format; or 9 (ii) limit types or categories of rec- 10 ommendations from such systems; and 11 (E) restrict the sharing of the geolocation 12 of the minor and provide notice regarding the 13 tracking of the minor’s geolocation. 14 (2) OPTIONS.—A covered platform shall provide 15 an individual that the covered platform knows or 16 reasonably should know is a minor with readily ac- 17 cessible and easy-to-use options to— 18 (A) delete the minor’s account and delete 19 any personal data collected from, or shared by, 20 the minor on the covered platform; or 21 (B) limit the amount of time spent by the 22 minor on the covered platform. 23 (3) DEFAULT SAFEGUARD SETTINGS FOR MI- 24 NORS.—A covered platform shall provide that, in the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 10 •S 1409 RS case of a user that the platform knows or reasonably 1 should know is a minor, the default setting for any 2 safeguard described under paragraph (1) shall be 3 the option available on the platform that provides 4 the most protective level of control that is offered by 5 the platform over privacy and safety for that user. 6 (b) PARENTAL TOOLS.— 7 (1) TOOLS.—A covered platform shall provide 8 readily accessible and easy-to-use settings for par- 9 ents to support an individual that the platform 10 knows or reasonably should know is a minor with re- 11 spect to the individual’s use of the platform. 12 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—The parental tools pro- 13 vided by a covered platform shall include— 14 (A) the ability to manage a minor’s privacy 15 and account settings, including the safeguards 16 and options established under subsection (a), in 17 a manner that allows parents to— 18 (i) view the privacy and account set- 19 tings; and 20 (ii) in the case of a user that the plat- 21 form knows or reasonably should know is 22 a child, change and control the privacy and 23 account settings; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 11 •S 1409 RS (B) the ability to restrict purchases and fi- 1 nancial transactions by the minor, where appli- 2 cable; and 3 (C) the ability to view metrics of total time 4 spent on the platform. 5 (3) NOTICE TO MINORS.—A covered platform 6 shall provide clear and conspicuous notice to an indi- 7 vidual that the platform knows or reasonably should 8 know is a minor when tools described in this sub- 9 section are in effect and what settings or controls 10 have been applied. 11 (4) DEFAULT TOOLS.—A covered platform shall 12 provide that, in the case of a user that the platform 13 knows or reasonably should know is a child, the tools 14 described in this subsection shall be enabled by de- 15 fault. 16 (c) REPORTING MECHANISM.— 17 (1) REPORTS SUBMITTED BY PARENTS, MI- 18 NORS, AND SCHOOLS.—A covered platform shall pro- 19 vide— 20 (A) a readily accessible and easy-to-use 21 means to submit reports to the covered plat- 22 form of harms to minors; 23 (B) an electronic point of contact specific 24 to matters involving harms to a minor; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 12 •S 1409 RS (C) confirmation of the receipt of such a 1 report and a means to track a submitted report. 2 (2) TIMING.—A covered platform shall establish 3 an internal process to receive and substantively re- 4 spond to reports in a reasonable and timely manner, 5 but in no case later than— 6 (A) 7 days after the receipt of a report, if, 7 for the most recent calendar year, the platform 8 averaged more than 10,000,000 active users on 9 a monthly basis in the United States; 10 (B) 21 days after the receipt of a report, 11 if, for the most recent calendar year, the plat- 12 form averaged less than 10,000,000 active 13 users on a monthly basis in the United States; 14 and 15 (C) notwithstanding subparagraphs (A) 16 and (B), if the report involves an imminent 17 threat to the safety of a minor, as promptly as 18 needed to address the reported threat to safety. 19 (d) ADVERTISING OF ILLEGAL PRODUCTS.—A cov- 20 ered platform shall not facilitate the advertising of nar- 21 cotic drugs (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled 22 Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)), tobacco products, gam- 23 bling, or alcohol to an individual that the covered platform 24 knows or reasonably should know is a minor. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Dec 14, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S1409.RS S1409 13 •S 1409 RS (e) APPLICATION.— 1 (1) ACCESSIBILITY.—With respect to safe- 2 guards and parental controls described under sub- 3 sections (a) and (b), a covered platform shall pro- 4 vide— 5 (A) information and control options in a 6 clear and conspicuous manner that takes into 7 consideration the differing ages, capacities, and 8 developmental needs of the minors most likely 9 to access [Text truncated for display. 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