Lawmakers reintroduce children’s online privacy legislation

Lawmakers on Tuesday reintroduced the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, a bill that would greatly restrict how digital platforms handle kids’ data.

Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) are behind the legislation, which Markey first introduced in 2011 and has revived in every Congress since.

The bill would ban targeted advertising to children and teens, mandate that companies minimize and erase personal data collected from children and teens and bar internet companies from collecting data belonging to 13- to 16-year-old users without their consent.

COPPA 2.0, as the bill is called, was folded into a separate children’s online safety bill in the last Congress and advanced further than it ever has previously. The Senate approved the legislation with a 91-3 vote in July, but the full House never voted on the bill due to concerns among House leadership.

Dozens of children's advocacy groups and other organizations such as teacher unions, privacy advocacy organizations and medical associations announced support for the revived bill on Tuesday.

“Every kid has an iPad or smartphone,” Cassidy said in a statement. “COPPA 2.0 is the tool that will give parents the peace of mind they need and keep their children’s personal information secure.”

Big tech’s monitoring of children online has drastically increased as children’s use of social media and gaming apps has exploded in recent years, supporters said.

“Children’s surveillance has only intensified across social media, gaming, and virtual spaces, where companies harvest data to track, profile, and manipulate young users,” Katharina Kopp, deputy director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said in a statement.