U.S. House Passes Comprehensive KIDS Act with Expanded Privacy Protections for Children and Teens
Guardii Analysis
On June 29, 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7757, the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, comprehensive bipartisan legislation that includes the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) and the Promoting a Safer Internet for Minors Act. The package requires parental consent before children under age 14 can access covered digital services, expands privacy protections to teenagers under 18, prohibits targeted advertising directed at children and teens, and mandates that data brokers collecting or selling children's personal information register with the Federal Trade Commission in a publicly searchable database.
Blanket age-gating and consent mandates determine who can access a service but do not address what happens once a child is online. Guardii's anti-grooming and anti-sextortion detection operates at the point of contact: monitoring direct-message conversations in real time across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and Roblox to identify coercion, escalation and sustained targeting patterns before harm occurs, enabling a parent or professional to intervene when a conversation turns dangerous without requiring platforms to exclude younger users or burden every adult with identity verification. Backed by Startmate and a Meta Business Partner, Guardii provides targeted harm detection that complements access controls by addressing the underlying threat.