• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, March 4, 2025

Bipartisan lawmakers on Tuesday again introduced a bill that would further restrict companies' ability to collect and harness data from users under the age of 17.

The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, introduced by Senators Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), would expand the current children's privacy law by prohibiting website and app operators from knowingly collecting personal data from users between the ages of 13 and 15 without their consent.

Currently, federal law prohibits online companies from knowingly collecting personal data from users under 13 without their parents' consent.

The proposed law also would apply if companies have “actual knowledge” of users' ages, or “knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances.”

The bill defines personal information as including not only names and email addresses, but also pseudonymous data like cookie-based information, IP addresses and device identifiers.

Another provision would ban companies from serving targeted ads to users under 17 -- including ads based on those users' online activity. The bill would continue to allow companies to serve teens and children with contextual ads -- meaning ads based on the content on the websites or apps where the ads appear.

Markey and Cassidy have introduced versions of this bill since at least 2021. Last year, the Senate passed the measure, but it stalled in the House.