KOSA advances Senate panel; age verification bill falls short of meeting quorum

News KOSA advances Senate panel; age verification bill falls short of meeting quorum Comments: by Miranda Nazzaro - 08/05/26 12:23 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Miranda Nazzaro - 08/05/26 12:23 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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A Senate panel advanced the landmark Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in a markup Wednesday, while an age verification bill to keep minors off pornography websites failed after the committee did not meet quorum.

The Senate Commerce Committee’s unanimous support for KOSA was largely expected given the chamber’s previous passage of the bill, but age verification advocates were left surprised when the Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act could not move forward due to low attendance.

The SCREEN Act, introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), would require pornography websites to use age verification technology to block minors from the platforms.

While it does not go as far as other age verification proposals introduced this session, advocates saw its passage in the House — and consideration in the Senate — as a positive sign of interest from Congress.

The panel voted 15-13 in a voice vote along party lines to advance the SCREEN Act, but with at least 10 committee members not physically present for the vote, it failed to meet quorum. While at least one-third of the committee needs to be physically there to start a markup, a majority of the committee must be physically present to vote.

While some kids’ safety advocates supported the SCREEN Act, it faced significant backlash from privacy and free speech groups and divided Big Tech firms on who should be responsible for verifying users’ ages.

KOSA, which aims to hold social media firms accountable for the alleged harms on the internet and social media, is expected to pass the full Senate, but it faces an uphill battle given significant disagreements between the two chambers.

The House’s version of KOSA, which passed as part of a broader kids’ safety package last month, eliminated a “duty of care” provision that is a redline for the Senate’s co-authors, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who called the package “dead on arrival” in the Senate last month.

The provision would have legally required platforms to “exercise reasonable care” to prevent harms to minors. Harms include eating disorders, suicide, substance use disorders and sexual exploitation.

“I cannot emphasize enough the urgency of stopping the hideous harms done by social media and overcoming the powerful coalition of lobbyists and lawyers that Big Tech has mustered against this bill,” Blumenthal said following the markup. “We need to prevail in conference with the House after we get it across the finish line.”

The other three bills under consideration, the Youth AI Privacy Act; the Children’s Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act of 2026; and the Children’s Health, Advancement, Trust, Boundaries, and Oversight in Technology Act, also advanced out of committee Wednesday.

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