Kids Internet Safety Partnership Act
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Fry (for himself and Mr. Landsman) introduced the following …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Kids Internet Safety Partnership Act creates a new government body within the Department of Commerce called the "Kids Internet Safety Partnership." This Partnership will coordinate with federal agencies like the FTC and stakeholders to identify risks and benefits of online services for children, and publish best practices for websites and apps to implement safety features. The Partnership will operate for 5 years.
Who Benefits and How
Parents and families benefit from clearer guidance on protecting children online and more standardized parental control tools across platforms. Child safety researchers and advocacy groups gain opportunities to participate in federal coordination efforts and shape policy recommendations. Children under 18 benefit from potential improvements to online safety standards across websites and applications.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Commerce must establish and staff the Partnership, appoint a Director, and fund ongoing operations for 5 years. Online platforms, social media companies, and app developers are expected to voluntarily adopt the best practices published by the Partnership, though no mandatory compliance is required. The Federal Trade Commission must coordinate with the Partnership on child safety efforts.
Key Provisions
- Creates a Kids Internet Safety Partnership under the Secretary of Commerce with a 5-year sunset
- Requires biennial reports on online risks/benefits for minors and platform adoption of safeguards
- Mandates publication of a "playbook" for platforms covering age verification, design features, parental tools, privacy settings, and recommendation systems
- Defines problematic "design features" including infinite scrolling, autoplay, gamification rewards, push notifications, and appearance-altering filters
- Requires coordination with academic experts, researchers, parents, educators, platforms, civil liberties experts, and state attorneys general
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Establishes the Kids Internet Safety Partnership under the Department of Commerce to coordinate federal agency efforts and stakeholder collaboration in identifying online risks and benefits for minors, and to publish best practices and implementation playbooks for websites and applications.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Create a voluntary, coordination-focused government body to develop best practices for child online safety without imposing direct mandates on platforms"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Parents of minors using online services
- Children and minors using websites and apps
- Consumer advocacy groups focused on child safety
- Academic researchers in child online safety
Likely Burden Bearers
- Department of Commerce (administrative costs)
- Federal Trade Commission (coordination requirements)
- Online platforms, websites, and app developers (expected to adopt voluntary best practices)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_director"
- → Director of the Partnership
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Commerce
- "the_partnership"
- → Kids Internet Safety Partnership
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Any feature or component of a website, online service, online application, or mobile application that encourages an increase in or increases the frequency of use or time spent by a user who is a minor, including infinite scrolling or auto play, rewards or incentives based on frequency of use or time spent, notifications and push alerts, badges or other visual award symbols based on frequency of use or time spent, and appearance altering filters.
An individual who is under the age of 18.
A legal guardian of a minor.
A tool that a website, online service, online application, or mobile application provides to a parent of a user who the service or application knows is a minor, and the parent uses to support such user, including tools to view or change privacy settings, grant or withdraw parental consent, restrict purchases, view usage metrics, restrict time, report harmful conduct, and limit personalized recommendation systems or chatbots.
Has the meaning given in section 1302 of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501).
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology