SAFE KIDS Act

Enhanced Child Safety: Providers must implement risk mitigation and safeguards, such as usage reminders and age-appropriate warnings, to protect against foreseeable harms like eating disorders or self-harm (Section 4(a)(2)).

Improved Crisis Response: The Act requires a documented crisis-response protocol to provide timely support and referrals to external resources if a user expresses suicidal ideation or intent to harm others (Section 4(a)(4)).

Increased Parental Control: Parents are provided with specific tools to set usage limits, control whether personal information is used for training, and disable specific features (Section 4(a)(7)).

Protection from Deceptive Design: The bill prohibits the use of deceptive design patterns that might interfere with a child's or parent's ability to use safety and privacy controls (Section 5(e)).

Privacy Protections: The Act prohibits the sale or sharing of a child's personal information without verifiable parental consent, preventing unauthorized data use (Section 5(c)).

Prevention of Harmful Content: Providers are prohibited from knowingly making available content that encourages unlawful activities, eating disorders, or sexual exploitation (Section 4(a)(2)).

Financial Burden on Providers: Companies are required to pay for annual independent audits, which could be a significant cost to the provider (Section 7(a)(1)).

Strict Penalties for Violations: Providers face civil penalties of $1,000 per violation per user for failure to maintain safeguards, and up to $10,000 per violation for willful violations regarding sexual exploitation or false information (Section 8(a)(3)).

Data Collection Requirements: To comply with age verification, providers must implement age estimation technology, which involves establishing and maintaining data security measures for that data (Section 3(d)).