Gus Bilirakis advances KIDS Act protections, but Kathy Castor laments loopholes for Big Tech

A federal package aimed at protecting youth online is sharply dividing Florida lawmakers.

U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, a Palm Harbor Republican, has focused on online protections. He filed the Kids Online Safety (KOSA) Act (HR 6484) in December. That bill has since become part of the larger Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act (HR 7757).

As the larger legislative package was considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Bilirakis called the bill the “most comprehensive kids online safety package this committee has ever advanced.”

“We heard stories of kids being groomed by strangers through gaming apps and consoles. The KIDS Act addresses that,” Bilirakis said. “We heard stories of chatbots encouraging and facilitating suicides in kids. The KIDS Act, sponsored by the Chairman, addresses that. We’ve come a long way.”

But U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor said Congress has not gone nearly far enough. The Tampa Democrat said the bill absolves tech companies that own social media platforms from the harm allowed online.

“This is not the time to turn your back on kids, and people across America are aware of this,” she said. “We’re not going to stand for weaker bills that put our kids’ safety and privacy at risk.”

The divide between the Tampa Bay lawmakers felt especially striking as the two worked together in 2024 on a prior version of the KOSA Act. But in this Congress, the two parted ways on the legislation, with Castor in December slamming the bill as “loophole-ridden.”

She said at the Committee hearing her greatest concern remains leaving “duty of care,” the legal obligation to prevent careless action by minors, on parents instead of tech companies.

“Why are Republicans catering to the Big Tech companies instead of truly getting back to the bipartisan, strong versions of kids’ online safety and privacy bills that we hammered out together in the last Congress? I think you only have to look at what this Congress has done,” she said. “The Big Tech companies had a front-row seat at the inauguration. They were able to pass an AI moratorium.”

Republicans in the Committee said Democrats were wrong to oppose the bill rather than advance it as a step forward. Bilirakis said the legislation, including provisions from the KOSA Act, put better legal protections in that should stop children becoming victims to predators.

“This includes limitations on the ability of strangers to engage with minors online. It limits design features that cause compulsive use and addiction to social media platforms, restricts geolocation of minors that are being used by groomers to meet and abuse their victims, as well as to facilitate narcotic drug sales. Most importantly, KOSA turns off algorithms by default for our kids,” he said.

“Imagine you are a teen child that enjoys UFC videos, or a teen girl or boy who watches a video on healthy eating. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this, but we’ve all heard the stories in a matter of days, they can be sucked into an algorithm that twists these innocent views into promoting violence, drug use or self-harm or eating disorders. KOSA puts an end to this spiral.”