The Tech Oversight Project Applauds Bipartisan, Landslide Passage of Children’s Digital Privacy Legislation

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, The Tech Oversight Project applauded the Senate Commerce Committee for passing landmark Children’s Digital Privacy legislation out of committee on a bipartisan and landslide basis. S.1628, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act passed the committee on a voice vote, and S.3663, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), passed on a 20-0 vote.

“As a mother, it is disturbing and heartbreaking to see Big Tech platforms track and profit from our children’s movements and then push violent and harmful content toward them. From the classroom to our living rooms, we need to ensure that tech companies protect children— kids’ pain and suffering should not be the cost of doing business,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of the Tech Oversight Project. “Enshrining children’s digital right to privacy is an essential step in reining in Big Tech, and we applaud the Senate Commerce Committee’s commitment to protecting kids online.”

The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act would:

Build on COPPA’s consent requirements by prohibiting internet companies from collecting personal information from users who are 13 to 15 years old without the user’s consent;
Ban targeted advertising (as opposed to contextual advertising) directed at children;
Establish a “Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for Teens” that limits the collection of personal information of teens;
Revises COPPA’s “actual knowledge” standard to a “constructive knowledge” standard so that websites that should reasonably know that kids are on their websites need to get consent in order to collect children’s data;
Create an “Eraser Button” for parents and kids by requiring companies to permit users to eliminate personal information from a child or teen when technologically feasible;
Establish a Youth Marketing and Privacy Division at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC);
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;
Require that internet connected devices targeted toward children meet robust cyber security standards;
Require manufacturers of connected devices targeted to children and minors to prominently display on their packaging a privacy dashboard detailing how information is collected, transmitted, retained, used, and protected; and
Commission reports on the effectiveness of the COPPA safe harbor program.

The Kids Online Safety Act would:

KOSA establishes important protections against the threat to children’s health and well-being. The legislation would require social media platforms put the interests of children first by requiring platforms to make safety the default and to give kids and parents tools to help prevent the destructive impact of social media. KOSA also ensures that parents and policymakers can assess whether social media platforms are taking meaningful steps to address risks to kids. To that end, the bill:

Provides parents and kids safeguards and tools to protect kids’ experiences online: The bill requires social media platforms provide minors with options to protect their information, 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.
Creates accountability for social media’s harms to kids: The bill creates a duty for social media platforms to prevent and mitigate harms to minors, such as content promoting of selfharm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, and sexual exploitation. It also requires social media platforms perform an annual independent audit assessing risks to minors, their compliance with this Act, and whether the platform is taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms.
Opens up black box algorithms: The bill provides academic researchers and non-profit organizations with access to critical datasets from social media platforms to foster research regarding harms to the safety and well-being of minors.