House Kids’ Safety Deal Complicates Ai Talks

The bipartisan deal on kids’ online safety that the House Energy and Commerce Committee rolled out Monday threatens to derail hopes of passing major tech and AI legislation this year.

A major reason: key differences from a kids’ safety and AI package that Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is negotiating with the Trump administration. The White House is working to shore up support for a Blackburn-led kids’ safety package that could ultimately block or replace some state AI laws.

Unlike Blackburn’s package, the House bill text blessed by Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), would not require online companies to design social media platforms with an eye for children’s safety. (This concept is known as a "duty of care.") It also omits language preempting state artificial intelligence laws — a major Silicon Valley priority Senate Republicans are expected to take up.

Those divisions may be too stark to overcome in the few short weeks of work remaining on the legislative calendar this year, according to four lobbyists, an AI safety advocate and two Hill staffers from both sides of the aisle. POLITICO granted them anonymity to speak candidly about ongoing discussions.

“The House just signaled, on a bipartisan basis, what it's actually willing to pass,” said Joseph Hoefer, principal and chief AI officer at the bipartisan lobbying firm Monument Advocacy, which complicates Blackburn’s White House play. “By planting a flag on a narrower version, particularly on duty of care, the House is effectively setting the ceiling for what can clear the floor.”

Some key senators rejected the House’s proposal even before Guthrie and Pallone released the bill text.

“The House’s toothless & tepid capitulation is dead in the Senate & a betrayal of families suffering from Big Tech’s greed,” Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the Senate bill’s Democratic co-sponsor, wrote Monday in a post on X. He pointed to the lack of “duty of care” language.

Blackburn, meanwhile, said in a statement that omitting a duty of care maintains the status quo of tech companies “putting profit before the safety of our children.”

And other tech and AI bills keep emerging to vie for lawmakers’ attention. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has indicated he plans to advance a kids’ safety package in the coming weeks that could override some state AI laws. Early this month, a separate House draft by Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) sought to set sweeping federal AI policy and override state laws but has gotten a tepid reception from the White House and GOP leaders.

The flurry of bills and drafts, much of it driven by the AI industry’s push for preemption, threatens to make it harder to coalesce on just one vehicle.

This has a “whiff of trying to do too many things, and I think that it assumes that industry is so eager for federal AI standards that they would accept any trade off, and I don't think that's true,” Adam Kovacevich, a former Google executive and CEO of tech industry group Chamber of Progress, told POLITICO.

For one thing, lawmakers in both chambers appear to be on far different pages about whether — and how — preemption fits into child safety legislation. House Energy and Commerce committee leaders see the push to pass their Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act as separate from the preemption debate according to a person familiar with the negotiations, granted anonymity to discuss private talks.

Supporters of Blackburn’s Kids Online Safety Act, meanwhile, view stripping out the crucial “duty of care” provision as a nonstarter.

In essence, the House is pushing for minimum federal standards for kids’ online safety while allowing states to legislate more aggressive protections — something some Republicans have traditionally opposed.

This was designed to address one of Democrats’ main concerns about an earlier version of Guthrie’s KIDS Act that Energy and Commerce advanced along party lines in March — that it limited states’ ability to strengthen protections for kids, according to a Democratic staffer granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

Also included in Monday’s revised KIDS Act package are bills that would restrict minors’ use of disappearing messages, require AI chatbots to disclose that they are not human and require platforms to implement age verification technology for users accessing pornographic material, among other measures.

“I am hopeful that this consensus legislation can soon be considered by the full House,” Guthrie said in a statement.

The White House did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

A Republican staffer said the Texas Republican’s plans to mark up a kids’ safety package remain unchanged. Cruz previously told POLITICO that this would include KOSA, as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media, and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

The Senate’s “duty of care” provision has raised questions regarding censorship in the House, with some members concerned that it could encourage platforms to block controversial content that may distress minors. These concerns ultimately led to Speaker Mike Johnson rejecting a last-ditch effort by kids’ safety advocates to take KOSA up for a floor vote during the last Congress.

But the House’s bipartisan deal now has buy-in from Johnson, according to a person with direct knowledge of the legislation granted anonymity to discuss private talks. That complicates Congress’ preemption push even further.

All these conflicting efforts give supporters of kids’ safety rules at least one consolation, however: They’re drawing attention to the issue.

“It seems like every couple days the odds of an actual kid safety package passing go up,” said Jon Schweppe, a senior adviser at the conservative American Principles Project who attended a meeting at the White House earlier this month with kids’ safety groups. He acknowledged that any sort of preemption legislation will be an uphill battle, but believes House Democrats’ support could have an impact on how the Senate moves on legislation.

Katherine Long contributed to this report.