Watchdog to Congress: Don’t Be Fooled by the KIDS Act

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) today announced its opposition to the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, warning that the legislation imposes sweeping, poorly defined regulatory mandates on internet platforms, creates a de facto age verification requirement through a legal backdoor, and authorizes a string of new federal programs—all without evidence any of it will meaningfully protect children online.

“The KIDS Act is a pathetic parade of heavy-handed bills crammed into one, dressed up in the language of child protection to make it harder to oppose. Buried inside it are KOSA and COPPA 2.0—two sweeping expansions of federal authority that couldn’t survive scrutiny on their own,” said David Williams, President of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

“No one should be fooled—this legislation will not protect children. What it will do is erode the data privacy of every American who uses the internet, hand industry a compliance nightmare, and stand up a new federal bureaucracy inside the Department of Commerce tasked with creating a “playbook” for age verification “best practices.” Age verification is never “best practice”—it is constitutional malpractice. Vague mandates, including backdoor age verification requirements, put the private data of every user—adult and minor alike—at risk, and a raft of new government studies and programs add up to more government, more cost, and less innovation.

“Make no mistake—this bill creates a backdoor age-verification mandate that threatens privacy. When platforms are told they are legally liable for what they ‘should have known’ about their users’ ages, they will verify everyone. Not just minors. Everyone. The result is a de facto requirement that Americans prove their identity to access the internet, with their data sitting in easily breached private databases that have been repeatedly hacked. This bill is a privacy catastrophe waiting to happen, and Congress is rushing toward it in the name of protecting children. TPA urges Congress to reject this legislation.”

Among TPA’s core objections:

A de facto age verification requirement. Despite an explicit rule of construction against mandatory age verification, the “know or should have known” standard creates legal pressure for platforms to build verification infrastructure to avoid liability — a backdoor mandate that raises serious privacy concerns for all users.

Vague design standards that invite litigation. The bill’s definition of design features causing “compulsive usage” is broadly worded and could capture ordinary product functions, generating costly litigation and regulatory expansion through guidance documents.

Taxpayer-funded bureaucracy expansion. Title V mandates FTC and HHS studies, a four-year NIH longitudinal study, a public awareness campaign, AI safety education programs, and a new five-year Kids Internet Safety Partnership within the Department of Commerce.

Broad and vague chatbot requirements. The legislation tasks chatbot providers with maintaining “reasonable policies, practices, and procedures” addressing purported harms such as the “promotion” of alcohol, without describing what that would entail. Applications could even conceivably be punished for discussing the history of prohibition.

TPA acknowledges the removal of the duty-of-care provision from the earlier Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act and the inclusion of explicit encryption protections, but stripping the worst elements of a deeply flawed bill is not reform. Children deserve real protection. The KIDS Act does not deliver it. TPA urges Congress to reject this misguided legislation.