Two Children’s Privacy Bills Advances Out of Senate Commerce Committee

On July 27, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted to advance two children’s privacy bills to the Senate floor with broad bipartisan support. 

The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) (S. 1628), introduced by Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), would update the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Act to raise the age of consent for data collection to 15 and build a new Federal Trade Commission division focused on children’s privacy to enforce it. It passed through the committee despite objections from Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS)  and a few other Republicans. The bill would specifically: 

• Prohibit internet companies from collecting personal and location information from anyone under 13 without parental consent, and from anyone 13 to 15 years old without the user’s consent
• Ban targeted advertising directed at children
• Revise COPPA’s “Actual knowledge” standard to a “constructive knowledge” standard for the definition of covered operators
• Require online companies to explain the types of personal information collected, how that information is used and disclosed, and the policies for collection of personal information
• Prohibit the sale of internet connected devices targeted towards children and minors unless they meet robust cyber security standards; and
• Require manufacturers of connected devices targeted to children and minors to prominently display on their packaging a privacy dashboard detailing how sensitive information is collected, transmitted, retained, used, and protected.

The Kids Online Safety Act (S. 3663), introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), passed by voice vote without objection. The bill creates a duty for social media platforms to prevent and mitigate harms to minors, such as content promoting of self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, and sexual exploitation. It also requires social media platforms perform an annual independent audit assessing risks to minors, and whether the platform is taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms. It mandates that platforms allow minor users the ability to disable addictive product features, and opt-out of algorithmic recommendations—and requires platforms to enable the strongest settings by default. 

The bill also gives parents new controls to help support their children and spot harmful behaviors, including by providing children and parents with a dedicated channel to report harms to kids to the platform. Added during the markup,  Blumenthal’s bill now includes an amendment from Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE.) to ban large online platforms from using deceptive user interface designs i.e. dark patterns for children.

Sen. Blumenthal said he is expecting the House to introduce companion legislation and predicted his measure would win passage independent of the advancement of a comprehensive privacy bill. As evidenced during remarks at the hearing this week, there remains growing conflict among majority and minority committee leadership over delays in passing a comprehensive federal data privacy bill this Congress.The Senate kids’ bills and the currently debated broader House Energy and Commerce data privacy bill offer similar protections and would require companies to establish a “safety-by design” approach, which entails companies baking privacy protections into their products and practices from the start.

Watch the full committee markup here. 

To learn more about the Senate’s ongoing efforts to further legislate children’s privacy issues, including S. 3663 and S.1628, please contact Alison Pepper.