Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, in a moment, I will ask unanimous consent that the Senate pass the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0, bipartisan legislation that would finally update our children's online privacy law for the modern internet age.

More than 25 years ago, I passed the original Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. At that time, the internet looked very different than it does today. Only birds tweeted 25 years ago. TikTok was the sound that a clock made. But one thing that has not changed, children and teens deserve privacy, they deserve safety, and they deserve protection online.

Unfortunately, Big Tech's business model has evolved far faster than our laws. Today, the largest online platforms collect enormous amounts of personal data from the users, including from children and from teenagers. That data fuels an advertising machine designed to keep young people clicking, swiping, and scrolling for as long as possible.

These ads are big business for Big Tech. In 2022, the major Big Tech platforms earned nearly $11 billion from U.S. users 17 and under. This model has real consequences for the well-being of our young people--$11 billion.

And we are facing a youth mental health crisis in this country, driven in part by social media platforms.

I have said these statistics on the floor before, but they bear repeating. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in four teenage high school girls in the United States seriously considered suicide in 2023.

At least one in eight high school girls in the United States in 2023 attempted suicide. Among LGBTQ+ youth, the number is more than one in five who attempted suicide in 2023.

Congress has a responsibility to respond. COPPA 2.0 does exactly that. It brings our children's privacy law into the 21st century and gives young people and their families meaningful control over their personal information.

First, COPPA 2.0 bans targeted advertising to children and teenagers. The days of building detailed behavioral profiles on young people in order to serve them manipulative, hyperpersonalized ads--that era must come to an end. That is what we are talking about in this legislation here today--ending that era in our country.

Second, the legislation creates an ``eraser'' button, allowing children and teens and their parents to delete the personal data that platforms have collected about them.

Third, COPPA 2.0, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0, establishes strong limits on the collection of personal information from minors. If a platform, for example, does not need a child's or a teen's data to provide the service, it should not be collecting that data in the first place.

These are simple, commonsense protections, and they have broad bipartisan support.

I am very, very proud to have worked over the last 3 years with my friend Senator Cassidy from Louisiana on constructing this legislation and moving it to the floor here today. He is a physician, and he is someone who believes in preventive care. That is what this bill is today. It just avoids much of the harm that otherwise will be imposed upon teenagers and children in our country.

I also want to thank Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Cantwell, and many other Members in this body who have helped move this legislation forward.

This effort has also been driven by parents, by advocates, by young people themselves--families who have experienced firsthand the harms that can result when online platforms prioritize profit over the safety of children.

Passing COPPA 2.0 today would represent the single most significant update to children's online privacy protections in a quarter of a century. It is long overdue. We know there is a crisis, and it would send a clear message that Congress is prepared to stand up to Big Tech and put the interests of kids and families first.

I would be remiss if I did not note what is happening across the Capitol today. Even as the Senate works in a bipartisan manner to strengthen protections for children and teens online, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is marking up a weaker partisan version of this legislation. That proposal strips away key protections and undermines the strong bipartisan compromise that Members of this Chamber have worked for years to develop. The children in our country deserve better than a watered-down privacy bill in this online era. For kids in our country right now, online access is like oxygen for them. It is all day. It is every day. Yet we haven't updated the safety protections in 25 years.

I urge my colleagues in the House to set aside partisan differences and take up the Senate's bipartisan bill so that we can finally deliver meaningful online privacy protections for children and teenagers across our country. Young people and their families have waited long enough. That is what we will be voting on right now.

With that, I yield to my partner and my friend in this effort, the Senator from Louisiana, Senator Cassidy.

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Mr. MARKEY. I thank my friend for his consistent support in protecting teenagers and children in our country.

304, S. 836.
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Mr. MARKEY. With that again, Mr. President, I thank Senator Cassidy. It is a historic day. We have begun this process on the Senate floor today with protections in place, which has been long overdue for teenagers and children in our country. Again, it is the ongoing assault against their privacy and undermining their mental health. So I thank everyone who participated in this, especially my friend Senator Cassidy.

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