Trahan Backs Long Overdue Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Children Online

Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee, spoke on the House floor in support of the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act (KIDS) Act, bipartisan legislation containing multiple provisions to better protect children from online harms. “Our children have been left to navigate one of the most powerful and manipulative technologies ever built, and they've been left to do it alone,” said Congresswoman Trahan. “That ends with this bill.” Footage of Trahan’s remarks on the House floor can be accessed HERE or by clicking the image below. A transcript of her remarks as delivered is embedded. The KIDS Act combines the Kids Online Safety Act, the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), new data broker transparency requirements, and several additional measures into a single package of baseline protections for kids and teens online. The bill is the product of months of bipartisan negotiations led by Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) and Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (KY-02). Among its provisions, the KIDS Act: Updates COPPA to strengthen privacy protections and extend them from children under 13 to teens up to age 17, adding data minimization requirements, rights to access, correct, and delete data, and a ban on targeted advertising to minors. Requires social media platforms, including social gaming platforms, to enable safeguards by default, including limits on addictive design features, restrictions on sharing minors’ geolocation, and protections that keep adults from contacting or being recommended minor accounts. Gives parents tools to restrict minors’ purchases and screen time and to receive alerts when unknown users contact their kids. Requires chatbots to disclose that they are not human and to provide suicide prevention resources when prompted. Forces data brokers that sell kids' data to register annually with the Federal Trade Commission. Crucially, the bill explicitly preserves the right of states to enact and enforce stronger protections for children online, ensuring federal action serves as a floor rather than a ceiling. Congresswoman Trahan has spent years on the Energy and Commerce Committee advocating for stronger online protections for children, from her early work on social media data transparency to legislation aimed at curbing the harms platforms pose to young users. --------------------------------- Congresswoman Lori Trahan Remarks as Delivered Floor Speech on KIDS Act June 29, 2026 Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Ranking Member for yielding and for his strong leadership on this vitally important issue. When I joined the Energy and Commerce Committee six years ago, I committed to doing everything in my power to make the internet a safer place for my children, my two young daughters specifically. In the years since, I've sat in hearing after hearing where we've talked about doing something to deliver on that promise. I've met with parents who have lived every family's worst nightmare, parents whose children harmed themselves, and even ended their lives, because executives in Silicon Valley cared more about their stock price than the safety of our children. I looked those parents in the eye. I cried with them as they told their story. And then I went home to have hard conversations with my own girls about how the apps they use – Instagram, TikTok, and others – are engineered to make them doubt their image and question their worth. For years, this crisis has gone unanswered, decades at this point. Our children have been left to navigate one of the most powerful and manipulative technologies ever built, and they've been left to do it alone. Well, this bill ends that. To be clear, Mr. Speaker, the KIDS Act doesn't solve every problem, but it makes one heck of a dent. It finally gives kids and teens overdue privacy protections. It forces platforms to turn on safeguards by default, instead of burying them where no parent can find them. It puts tools in the hands of moms and dads. And it makes companies answer for the worst harms that they allow on their platforms. Is it everything I want? No. I've heard from parents and advocates who believe we should go further, and they're right that this fight isn't over. We can and must continue to build upon this progress, but I refuse to tell families to wait for a better political moment or for a perfect bill that may never come when meaningful protections are in front of us right now. And critically, these are protections built to last, not ones written to be struck down in court on the day they take effect. I want to thank Ranking Member Pallone for his commitment to these negotiations, and I want to acknowledge the work of leaders on the committee on this issue, including Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. Today, we pass the KIDS Act. Tomorrow, we keep fighting for safer digital spaces for every child, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence. I urge my colleagues to vote yes, and I yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. ###