Whether KOSA will pass remains genuinely uncertain. The Kids Online Safety Act cleared the Senate 91–3 in the last Congress and died in the House, and the same split is shaping up again: the Senate version has broad bipartisan support, while the House is moving a substantially different bill on party-line votes. Unless the two chambers can reconcile those differences, KOSA will not reach the president’s desk.
Where the Bill Stands Right Now
Senator Marsha Blackburn reintroduced KOSA in the Senate on May 14, 2025, as S.1748, with Senators Blumenthal, Thune, and Schumer as original co-sponsors. It was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and was still sitting there as of early 2026, with no committee action scheduled.1Congress.gov. S.1748 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) Kids Online Safety Act If it reaches the Senate floor, the 91–3 margin from the 118th Congress suggests it would likely pass again.
On the House side, H.R.6484 was introduced and referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee in December 2025. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a markup on December 11, 2025, and forwarded the bill to the full committee by a vote of 13–10.2Congress.gov. Info – H.R.6484 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) Kids Online Safety Act The full committee later advanced it on the same party-line pattern, with every Democrat voting against.
That’s a dramatic shift from the Senate’s near-unanimous margin, and it’s the single biggest reason the outcome is in doubt.
What Happened Last Time
The original KOSA, S.1409, passed the Senate 91–3 in late July 2024, clearing the 60-vote filibuster threshold with room to spare.3Congress.gov. S.1409 – 118th Congress (2023-2024) Kids Online Safety Act The House companion, H.R.7891, was referred to Energy and Commerce and never received a markup or a floor vote.4Congress.gov. H.R.7891 – Kids Online Safety Act When the 118th Congress adjourned in January 2025, both bills expired. Everything had to start over.
Why the House Is the Problem
The obstacle isn’t whether House members support child safety online. It’s that the House and Senate are pursuing fundamentally different approaches to what the law would do.
The House version reportedly strips out KOSA’s central mechanism, the “duty of care” that would require platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harms to minors. In its place, the House bill adopts an “actual knowledge” standard: companies would face liability only when they can be shown to have known a specific user was a minor. Critics argue that creates a loophole large enough to render the law unenforceable, because platforms can simply avoid collecting age data and then claim ignorance.
The House bill also includes language that would preempt state-level child safety laws. That has drawn opposition from state attorneys general and child advocacy groups who see existing state laws as stronger protections than what the House would put in their place. The Senate version, by contrast, preserves states’ authority to enforce their own child safety laws alongside federal requirements.
Republicans hold an extremely thin majority in the House, and the party-line committee votes mean leadership can afford almost no defections when all members are present. Even if the House does pass its bill, a version that looks nothing like the Senate’s would trigger a difficult reconciliation.
What Would Have to Happen for KOSA to Become Law
Several steps remain, and each has a real obstacle attached.
First, the Senate Commerce Committee would need to schedule action on S.1748 and move it to the floor. That hasn’t been scheduled. Second, the full Senate would need to pass the bill; based on the prior vote, this is the likeliest step to succeed. Third, the House would need to either accept the Senate version outright or pass its own bill and go to a conference committee, where designated members from both chambers negotiate compromise text that both chambers then vote on again.
If the House were to pass S.1748 as written by the Senate, the bill would move directly to the president. Given how different the two versions are, that scenario is unlikely. A conference committee is the more probable path, and it would have to bridge the duty-of-care gap and the state-preemption gap, which are the two provisions that define what the law would actually do.
Once both chambers approve identical text, the bill goes to the president for signature. If the president takes no action while Congress is in session, it becomes law automatically after ten days.5Library of Congress. ArtI.S7.C2.1 Overview of Presidential Approval or Veto of Bills A veto sends it back to Congress, where an override requires two-thirds in both chambers.
The White House Question
During the 118th Congress, the Biden administration issued an explicit statement of support for KOSA, urging Congress to send it to the president’s desk “without delay.”6The White House. Statement of Administration Policy – Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to S. 2073 That signal is gone. The Trump administration has not issued a comparable public statement on KOSA. Reports suggest the White House has been focused on AI policy that includes some children’s protections, but a clear position on KOSA specifically has not emerged.
Without a clear signal from the current president, even lawmakers inclined to compromise face uncertainty about whether a signed bill would survive, or whether a veto could be overridden.
Opposition That Complicates the Path
KOSA also faces steady opposition from civil liberties organizations who argue the duty of care functions as a content-based restriction on speech, and from privacy advocates who argue the bill creates strong incentives for platforms to implement age verification even though the Senate version does not require it.7U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. Kids Online Safety Act Supporters counter that the bill targets platform design rather than specific content, and they point to the bill’s rule of construction, which says nothing in the duty of care prevents minors from searching for content on their own or platforms from providing evidence-based health resources.8Congress.gov. Text – S.1748 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) Kids Online Safety Act These arguments are not new, but they continue to give House members on both sides reasons to push for different bill text.
The Realistic Outlook
KOSA has broad public support and bipartisan appeal in concept. The Senate has shown twice now that it can pass the bill with a supermajority. The House has become the graveyard for this issue in consecutive sessions, first by not voting at all, now by advancing a substantially different version on party-line margins. The legislative details, especially the duty of care and state preemption, continue to divide the people who would need to agree on final text.
For KOSA to become law in 2026, the Senate committee would need to move S.1748, the full Senate would need to pass it, the House would need to either accept that version or negotiate a workable compromise, and the president would need to sign it. Any one of those steps could stall the bill. Betting on all four falling into place in a single session, on this issue, in this Congress, is not something the current record supports.