Hunton Andrews Kurth writes: On July 30, 2024, in a 91-3 vote, the U.S. Senate passed two bills aimed at protecting youth online: the Kids Online Safety Act (“KOSA”) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA 2.0”). KOSA would create new obligations for companies to mitigate potential harms to children (known as…
Category: Laws
FTC Investigation Leads to Lawsuit Against TikTok and ByteDance for Flagrantly Violating Children’s Privacy Law
On behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice sued video-sharing platform TikTok, its parent company ByteDance, as well as its affiliated companies, with flagrantly violating a children’s privacy law—the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act—and also alleged they infringed an existing FTC 2019 consent order against TikTok for violating COPPA. The complaint alleges defendants failed to comply…
KOSA, COPPA 2.0 Likely to Pass U.S. Senate
Lindsey Tonsager, Nicholas Xenakis, and Thea McCullough of Covington and Burling write: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) yesterday, July 23, initiated procedural steps that will likely lead to swift Senate passage of the Kids Online Safety Act (“KOSA”) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA 2.0”). Both bills have been…
U.S. Senate Passes SHIELD Act to Criminalize Distribution of Private Intimate Images Online
Nicholas Xenakis and Diana Lee of Covington and Burling write: On July 10, 2024, the U.S. Senate passed the Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution (“SHIELD”) Act, which would criminalize the distribution of private sexually explicit or nude images online. Specifically, the legislation makes it unlawful to knowingly distribute a private intimate visual depiction of…