Cybersecurity Policy Report, Senate Commerce Committee Advances Online, AI Safety Bills, (Aug 5, 2026)

By Jeff Williams

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee today advanced by voice votes the latest versions of bills related to children's safety and with respect to online activities and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and connected devices, including the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) (S 1748), Youth AI Privacy Act (S 4199), and the Children’s Health, Advancement, Trust, Boundaries, and Oversight in Technology (CHATBOT) Act (S 4407).

The bills advanced today are "meant to give parents more control and assurance that their vulnerable children won't be exposed to the worst possible elements of social media and AI chatbots," committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said in remarks opening the markup session.

In particular, Mr. Cruz pointed to KOSA as a "major effort to protect children online."

That measure, reintroduced last year by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), would impose a “duty of care” on social media platforms to act in the best interests of minor users.

"I'm confident we will pass it on the Senate floor and then we will continue the hard work and negotiations with the House to get it over the finish line and to the president's desk," Sen. Cruz said. "I believe we'll get there. But there's more work to be done."

The House recently passed, by a 267-117 vote, the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act (HR 7757), which included parts of several bills, including the House version of KOSA (CPR, July 1).

Ms. Blackburn said during the session today that the Senate "cannot and will not" accept the House version of KOSA, which she said was "toothless" and amounts to a "very pale imitation of the Senate version" and a "pale imitation of Big Tech accountability."

With its vote today, the Senate Commerce Committee is "sending a message to Big Tech that this era of Big Tech profiting off of our children is over, and Congress is moving forward to make certain that they have to accept responsibility for the foreseeable harms that these products cause."

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.), the ranking member of the committee, said that "We need more responsibility from social media companies and KOSA gives parents the tools to help make them accountable when they prioritize engagement over keeping our kids safe."

The version the committee approved of Sen. Ed Markey's (D., Mass.) Youth AI Privacy Act, which would bar the use of minor users' personal data to generate or personalize responses, included an amendment offered by Mr. Cruz to give parents the ability to choose a different memory retention cap on AI chatbots than the default 30-day period set by the underlying bill or allow them to opt out of the limit entirely. Mr. Markey and other Democrats opposed the amendment.

The CHATBOT Act, introduced by Mr. Cruz and Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii), was approved without amendments being offered during the markup. The bill would require artificial intelligence (AI) companies to establish “family accounts” parents could use to manage access to chatbots by children under 13 years old.

“TechNet shares the goal of creating a safer internet for young Americans, and we appreciate the Senate Commerce Committee’s bipartisan action to keep youth online safety legislation moving forward. TechNet has had productive conversations with committee members as they considered refinements to these bills, and we look forward to continuing those discussions as Congress debates these measures,” said TechNet President and Chief Executive Officer Linda Moore.

“Any law Congress passes should respect both parental choice and the constitutional right to free speech. Our members are committed to youth online safety, which is reflected in their ongoing efforts to hone their platforms’ built-in safety features with these factors in mind—and they will continue doing so to provide safe outlets for young people to build community online,” she added.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association sent a letter yesterday to Mr. Cruz and Ms. Cantwell expressing concerns about KOSA, the CHATBOT Act, and the Youth AI Privacy Act, saying that the measures would "threaten privacy, reduce parental choice, and create unworkable and often contradictory compliance obligations for digital services."

The Center for Democracy & Technology sent a letter to the committee yesterday stating that KOSA, the CHATBOT Act, and the SCREEN Act raised "serious privacy, free expression, and constitutional concerns," including that they would "impose or incentivize age-verification systems, restrict young people’s access to lawful information, and create risks that adults could lose access to accounts or data after being mistakenly identified as minors."

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