By Hamza Faisal
Forty-five state and territory attorneys general have urged Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, arguing that federal safety standards for social media and gaming platforms are overdue — and that a $17 billion settlement with Meta earlier this year was only a starting point, not a finish line.
The bipartisan coalition sent a letter to congressional leaders on November 4, 2026, backing the Senate version of the bill, known as S. 1748. The effort was led by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Hawaii, Ohio and Tennessee, and signed by colleagues from 42 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The push comes as states step up enforcement against platforms over harms to young users. A day after the letter, West Virginia sued Snapchat, accusing it of misleading families about safety risks to children — the latest in a run of state actions that the attorneys general say shows Washington needs to set a national floor.
What the bill would require
At the centre of the bill is a duty of care: covered platforms would have to take reasonable steps to prevent design features that could foreseeably harm minors. The legislation would set minimum safety standards for social media and gaming platforms, while preserving the authority of states to enact and enforce stronger protections of their own.
The bill does not require platforms to verify users’ ages or collect extra personal information to determine how old someone is. Instead, it directs the Commerce Department, working with the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, to study whether age can feasibly be verified at the device or operating-system level.
Why the Meta settlement was not enough
The attorneys general pointed directly to the multistate settlement reached with Meta in August 2026, under which the company agreed to pay more than $17 billion and implement child-safety reforms on Facebook and Instagram, including age-assurance measures. The deal is still pending court approval.
In their letter, the coalition argued that the settlement’s safeguards, while significant, should be read as evidence that further action is necessary — not as a conclusion. A federal duty of care, they said, would extend protections beyond the term of the settlement and adapt as platforms introduce new features and design choices.
A bill that keeps stalling
The Kids Online Safety Act has repeatedly come close to becoming law without getting there. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee advanced an amended version of S. 1748 by voice vote on August 5, but a full Senate vote has not followed. On September 30, Senator Rand Paul objected to a request to pass the bill by unanimous consent, warning that its requirements could pressure companies to restrict constitutionally protected speech.
The House, meanwhile, passed its own version of online child-safety legislation, the KIDS Act, on June 29. The two chambers have yet to reconcile their approaches, and no new federal requirements will take effect unless Congress passes a bill and it is signed into law.
For the attorneys general, the message is that the states have done what they can on their own. “The settlement was a start,” the coalition’s argument runs — now it is Congress’s turn to set the standard.
