Child Online Safety Software Access

Current understanding

Sammy’s Law is a proposed federal framework that would require large social media platforms to provide interoperable mechanisms (APIs) allowing FTC-registered third-party safety software providers to monitor and manage minors’ accounts and access their data on behalf of parents or guardians. The stated goal is to protect minors from harms such as suicide, eating disorders, and sexual abuse by enabling parental-safety tools to operate across platforms. For individuals, it would expand parental/guardian access to a minor’s platform data via vetted intermediaries; for companies, it would impose new API, interoperability, and data-sharing obligations tied to FTC registration of safety vendors.

Evidence log

• 2026-08-14 — FCC To Review E-Rate Program To Ensure Congress’s Vision: 2026 — FCC Notice reviewing the E-Rate program (proposed rule) reopens CIPA interpretation and child-protection requirements on school/library networks, opening a parallel child-safety track that operates through federal subsidy conditions on educational networks rather than Sammy’s Law’s parental-monitoring API model on commercial platforms. (novelty: 3)
• 2026-07-13 — KIDS Act: 2026 — The KIDS Act (introduced) proposes a substantive minor-safeguards regime (age-gated sexual content, default compulsive/messaging limits, parental purchase controls, AI disclosures) that would operate alongside Sammy’s Law’s parental-monitoring API interoperability model rather than through third-party safety vendors. (novelty: 3)
• 2023-12-13 — Kids Online Safety Act: Further detail on KOSA (HR6484) confirms its broader platform-design mandate — including non-personalized algorithm options and ad-practice disclosures — reinforcing that it operates at a different regulatory layer than Sammy’s Law’s parental-monitoring API interoperability model. (novelty: 3)
• 2025-12-11 — Kids Online Safety Act: Cross-connection with kids-online-safety-act: KOSA (HR6484) advanced from subcommittee to full committee 13–10 as an amended substitute, establishing a broader platform duty-of-care and default-settings regime for minors that overlaps with — but is architecturally distinct from — Sammy’s Law’s parental-monitoring API interoperability model. (novelty: 2)
• 2026-07-28 — A bill to establish protections for minors who use companion artificial intelligence chatbots, and for other purposes.: S5154 (introduced) proposes a dedicated federal framework of protections for minors using companion AI chatbots, opening a distinct child-safety track from Sammy’s Law’s parental-monitoring API model by focusing on the AI system’s own conduct toward minors rather than platform interoperability. (novelty: 3)
• 2026-03-02 — James T. Woods Act: Cross-connection with james-t-woods-act: complementary child-safety tracks — Sammy’s Law addresses parental-monitoring interoperability via FTC-registered safety software, while the James T. Woods Act works through federal criminal law by creating new sextortion and online-coercion offenses targeting perpetrators. (novelty: 3)
• 2026-03-16 — Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act: 2026-03-16 — Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (S836, held at the desk) proposes extending COPPA-style consent and data-handling rules to teens, complementing Sammy’s Law’s parental-monitoring API framework from a different angle (statutory privacy floor vs. interoperability mandate). (novelty: 2) (novelty: 2)
• 2025-06-11 — STOP CSAM Act of 2025: STOP CSAM Act of 2025 (introduced) advances a parallel child-safety track focused on CSAM reporting obligations and victim civil remedies, distinct from Sammy’s Law’s parental-monitoring API framework but part of the same broader child online safety agenda. (novelty: 3)

Open questions

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