Senator Bill Cassidy (R) - Louisiana
The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act is heading to the House after passing the Senate on a 91-3 vote. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) says his legislation, nicknamed COPPA 2.0, updates online data privacy rules for children, like banning nonconsensual data collection on users under 17 instead of just those under 13.
“They [internet companies] cannot track or otherwise obtain data on those who are 17 and below,” he explains. “This is when kids are most vulnerable to peer pressure.”
COPPA 2.0 expands on the original COPPA from 1998 by adding modern updates. These include but aren’t limited to:
- requiring companies to create an “Eraser Button” which would let users remove a minor’s personal online information
- banning targeted advertising to minors
- revising COPPA’s “actual knowledge” standard to close a loophole that allows certain platforms to ignore minors on their sites
- establishing data minimization rules to prohibit collecting excessive data on children and teens
Cassidy says these changes help protect online users when they’re most vulnerable.
“Case law has firmly established that those who are younger deserve — and even require — special protections,” he says. “We’ve already done that. And this is nothing but an extension of those laws.”
Cassidy disagrees that COPPA 2.0 borders on censorship or violates internet companies’ First Amendment rights, saying it’s no different than banning cigarette ads towards minors. He thinks internet companies haven’t been respectful of children’s online privacy, adding, “They [internet companies] want to be able to track a teenager even if data shows overwhelmingly that teenagers are vulnerable to negative messages both in terms of their anxiety, and in terms of their risk for suicide, and in terms of their risk for other harmful behavior.”
The Senate also passed the Kids Online Safety Act, which Cassidy cosponsored.
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