FTC Mandated to Review All Online Safety Tools for Kids Under 17, Report Due in Three Years

The Assessing Safety Tools for Parents and Minors Act is essentially a mandate for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to conduct a deep dive into how the tech industry is handling online safety for minors, defined here as anyone under the age of 17. Think of this as the government telling the FTC, "Go read the fine print on every parental control app and safety setting out there and tell us if it actually works."

The Three-Year Safety Audit

Under Section 2 of the Act, the FTC must kick off this review within six months of the law’s enactment. The core of the review is twofold: first, mapping out all the current industry efforts—everything from age-appropriate content labels and privacy settings to educational tools. Second, and more importantly, assessing how effective these tools are at actually reducing online harms. For example, if a social platform offers a 'privacy setting,' the FTC will be looking at whether that setting is clear enough for a busy parent or a teenager to use correctly, and whether it actually stops problems like cyberbullying or exposure to inappropriate content.

To make sure this isn't just a desk exercise, the FTC is required to consult with a wide range of stakeholders: the tech industry itself, parents, experts in mental health, and specialists in communications technology and parental controls. This is the part that matters for everyday people. The idea is that the final report, due to Congress no later than three years after the law takes effect, will include solid recommendations for industry and lawmakers on how to genuinely improve online safety. If you’ve ever struggled to figure out your kid’s gaming console settings or felt like the safety tools on a streaming service were useless, this review is designed to figure out why.

What This Means for Your Digital Life

Since this bill is just about commissioning a study, it doesn't change any rules or costs today. However, the outcomes could set the stage for major changes down the road. If the FTC concludes that current parental controls are confusing, ineffective, or non-existent in critical areas, Congress will have a roadmap to draft new legislation that could mandate stronger, clearer safety standards. This is a big deal for parents and anyone who manages kids’ screen time, as it could lead to much simpler, more robust tools being built into the platforms we all use.

There is one small detail worth noting: the law explicitly exempts this reporting process from standard federal paperwork reduction requirements (SEC. 2). While this is usually a technicality, it means the FTC has a bit more flexibility in how it structures the data collection and reporting, which could speed up the process but also means less standardization in how they ask for information from the industry. Overall, this Act isn't a silver bullet, but it's the first step in getting a detailed, federally backed report card on whether the tech industry is actually keeping its promises on child safety.