Steve Stecklow reports:
A draft House bill with bipartisan support would prohibit companies from tracking children on the Internet without parental consent, restrict online marketing to minors and require an “Eraser Button” that would allow parents to eliminate kids’ personal information already online.
The draft of the “Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011“—released by Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican—would go well beyond existing federal law. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 only requires websites aimed at children under 13 to obtain parental permission before collecting personal information such as kids’ names or email addresses. The new legislation, among other things, would prohibit companies from using personal information of children and teenagers for targeted marketing purposes.
Read more in the Wall Street Journal.
Elsewhere, Cecilia Kang reports:
Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va) on Friday said he will introduce a “do not track” bill that would allow consumers to block Web sites and marketers from tracking their activity on the Internet.
The bill, to be released next week, comes amid heightened interest by lawmakers in creating new online consumer privacy rules following a hacker attack on Sony PlayStation data and the logging of user location information on Apple’s iPhone and Google Android phones. Rockefeller’s bill is separate from a more comprehensive bill on privacy and security.
Read more in the Washington Post.