‘Critical’ Online Privacy Protections for Children Advance to Senate Floor Vote

A key U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday took what one leading child advocate called “an important step toward creating a safer and less exploitative internet for children and teens.”

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced two pieces of legislation to the floor: the Kids Online Safety Act (S. 3663) and Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (S. 1628), also known as KOSA and COPPA 2.0.

While some privacy advocates have raised serious concerns about KOSA, progressive proponents like Fairplay executive director Josh Golin said that taken together, the bills “will provide critical privacy protections for children and teens, limit surveillance advertising, and require platforms to prioritize young people’s best interests.”

“We urge Congress to pass these bills into law—for far too long, Big Tech has been allowed to regulate itself at great expense to the health and well-being of young Americans,” he added, a call echoed by other groups, from the American Academy of Pediatrics to Center for Digital Democracy.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who authored the original Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as a congressman over two decades ago, is spearheading the effort to pass the updated legislation, joined by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).

“Protecting kids online has long been a priority of mine,” Markey said after the panel’s “historic” vote on COPPA 2.0. “But so much has changed since 1998. The threats to kids’ privacy and well-being are more pressing than ever. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that today, too many online platforms have an insatiable appetite for young people’s data and attention.”

“Too many online platforms are built on a business model that seeks to hook consumers at a young age by any means necessary,” he continued.

As Markey’s office summarized Wednesday, COPPA 2.0 would:

• Prohibit internet companies from collecting personal information from anyone 13 to 16 years old without the user’s consent;
• Ban targeted marketing to children;
• Create an online “Eraser Button” by requiring companies to permit users to eliminate personal information from a child or teen;
• Implement a “Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for Minors” that limits the collection of personal information from young users; and
• Establish a first-of-its-kind Youth Privacy and Marketing Division at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which will be responsible for addressing the privacy of children and minors and marketing directed at children and minors.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.