Kids Online Safety Act, Title II (Filter Bubble Transparency)

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Defunct
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Pollution of information ecosystem
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Compromise of privacy
• Competitive dynamics

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document primarily addresses algorithmic transparency and user autonomy risks, with focused coverage on filter bubbles (3.2), lack of transparency (7.4), and loss of agency (5.2). It has minimal coverage of privacy concerns (2.1) and competitive dynamics (6.4).

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Information sector, specifically online platforms, social media services, and digital content distribution services that use algorithmic ranking systems. It applies to public-facing websites, online services, and mobile applications that provide community forums for user-generated content.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding federal statute with mandatory requirements, enforcement mechanisms through the Federal Trade Commission, and penalties for non-compliance.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is identified as legislation from the United States Congress, which is the federal legislative body with authority to propose and enact federal statutes.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Deployer
• Summary: The document targets 'any person to operate an online platform' that uses opaque algorithms. Online platforms using algorithmic ranking systems are AI deployers as they deploy AI systems (algorithmic ranking) to end users.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Federal Trade Commission
• Summary: The Federal Trade Commission is explicitly designated as the enforcement body with full enforcement powers under the Federal Trade Commission Act.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Federal Trade Commission
• Summary: The Federal Trade Commission serves as the monitoring body through its enforcement jurisdiction and powers to oversee compliance with the requirements.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily addresses the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle, focusing on requirements for platforms that have already deployed algorithmic ranking systems. It mandates transparency notifications and user controls for operational systems.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

No technical scope terms identified.

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly addresses algorithmic ranking systems and AI techniques including machine learning and algorithmic decision-making. It does not mention AI models, AI systems, frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, generative AI, predictive AI, open-weight models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on algorithmic content ranking rather than specific AI model types.