WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie and ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. announced an agreement on the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act on Monday, June 22, 2026. The legislation had advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in March 2026.

Guthrie and Pallone issued a joint statement. A source stated the amended legislation would incorporate data privacy protections for children, use preemption to create a floor for state laws, and create a data broker registry.

The agreement follows a period when the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act moved out of the committee with only Republican support. Committee Democrats previously argued that the bill would remove too many state laws without establishing a sufficient federal standard. Lawmakers combined 12 separate measures to create the online safety package.

The bill as advanced by the committee would set new requirements for parental controls and require certain online platforms to implement policies addressing harms to children online. The legislation also includes sections addressing direct and ephemeral messaging services, online gaming, and artificial intelligence chatbots. The committee stated the bill would still include portions of the original 12 measures.

"We have now found common ground on policies to significantly improve the digital environment for kids," Guthrie and Pallone said in their joint statement. They added, "Through empowering parents, establishing safety as a default, strengthening privacy for children and teens, increasing transparency around data brokers, and holding Big Tech accountable, the KIDS Act delivers the 21st century protections parents have demanded and our kids deserve."

In March 2026, the committee deferred action on a stand-alone children's data privacy bill. At that time, Guthrie stated that bipartisan conversations were continuing and that the deferral was due to progress being made toward an agreement. The Senate approved its own version of the bill, known as COPPA 2.0, in March 2026. COPPA 2.0 is intended to update the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Committee staff did not offer a timeline for future action on the bill.

The Senate bill would revise the requirement for companies to have "actual knowledge" that a user is a child before needing parental consent for data disclosure. This new language would change the standard to "actual knowledge or knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances." The House bill would create a tiered system, where smaller companies would be governed by the "actual knowledge" standard. Larger platforms would be required to obtain parental consent if they "willfully disregarded information that would lead a reasonable and prudent person to determine that a user is a child or teen."