‘The House Is on Fire’: House Passes Online Protections to Shield Children from Porn

The House successfully passed their internet safety package for children while the Senate continues to stall. The Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act includes a key amendment that would protect children from viewing sexual content online, a statistic that only continues to grow.

“To use figurative language, the house is on fire,” Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., a sponsor of the amendment, told the Daily Signal.

The KIDS Act combines 14 digital safety bills, including a key age-verification amendment. The Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act, sponsored by Miller, would require platforms to use technology verification tools to ensure the accuracy of age verification to prevent minors from accessing any sexual material harmful to minors.

“Sadly, the average age that our children are accessing pornography on the internet is 11, and by the time our children turn 18, 80% of them have access to pornography,” Miller said.

“Parents are doing their best, but the truth is, with a few clicks of a button, kids can access this filth. And we know research shows that it causes anxiety, depression, risky sexual behavior, it’s a rot to the soul of our children,” she continued.

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“We require age identification for children to access other things, tobacco, alcohol, firearms, casinos, any kind of adult entertainment, you have to prove your age. So that’s all this bill does, is it requires the pornography companies to make the user prove their age,” Miller explained.

Can the Chambers Reach a Deal?

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has the amendment’s companion bill in the Senate. It has not yet been added to the upper chamber’s version of the KIDS Act, a package they call the Kids Online Safety Act.

The bipartisan KOSA package, co-authored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., has been introduced four times since 2024 and has stalled every time. They have not yet included Lee’s SCREEN Act in their version.

The chambers still can’t agree. Last week, Blumenthal said the House’s KIDS Act would be “dead in the Senate,” but Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, chairman of the Commerce Committee, where the bill resides, said they are open to negotiations with the House.

Blackburn has been working closely with the White House on KOSA’s language, specifically on artificial intelligence legislation.

While KOSA is missing the SCREEN Act, the Senate says the House’s KIDS Act is missing the most important part of their package: the duty of care provision.

The duty of care provision, more commonly known as reasonable care, places the responsibility of protection on social media servers, messaging apps, and online game companies. Enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, it would require platforms to implement reasonable care by enabling stronger privacy settings, limiting data collection, and altering algorithms to reduce harm, mental health issues, online bullying, and addiction.

The chambers continue to spar, but negotiations look likely, according to Cruz. The KIDS Act has been sent to the Senate, which will mark up its version of KOSA.

Miller told the Daily Signal if the SCREEN Act gets taken out, “I think it will stand alone as a bill to be passed,” calling it a “must-pass.”