RICHMOND, Va. – Children's online data could have an extra layer of protection under a bill unanimously passed by both chambers of the state Legislature earlier this month.
Rep. Michelle Maldonado, D-Manassas, sponsored House Bill 707, which would amend Virginia's Consumer Data Protection Act to prevent the processing or sale of data from children under 13. Such data collection is often used for targeted advertising and geolocation.
Data collectors must indicate whether they need to collect data from known children and obtain parental consent to do so. In 2021, approximately 97% of youth between the ages of 3 and 18 had access to the internet at home, according to census data.
Lawmakers spent the summer working on legislation to better align state privacy standards with federal standards, the Labor and Commerce Committee chairman said. The Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Regulation has the following requirements regarding the collection of data from children under 13:
Maldonado did not respond to an emailed interview request.
The bill passed the House unanimously and advanced to the Senate, where a similar proposal to amend the state's data law regarding children passed.
Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-Henrico) introduced Senate Bill 361. The bill mirrored HB 707, but expanded the definition of a minor to include those under 18 years of age. The bill was amended to reflect that language, and the replacement passed unanimously.
Van Valkenburg did not respond to an emailed interview request.
Another bill by VanValkenburg would ban social media companies like TikTok from distributing “addictive feeds” to minors.
A screenshot of the Facebook sign-in page. The company's CEO recently testified before Congress. Photo by Sam Bradley/VCU Capital News Service
Addictive feeds are essentially powered by algorithms that deliver and prioritize media content in ways that stimulate usage patterns. The bill passed with unanimous support and now heads to the House of Representatives.
Virginia was the second state to adopt a law protecting consumer data. The law, passed in 2021, served as a blueprint for other state legislatures in the absence of a federal standard, according to a recent report from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
The Center is a 30-year-old research organization focused on privacy protection and technology.
According to EPIC's report released in early February, Virginia received an F grade, or 11 out of 100, on consumer data protection law. Consumers in the state can only contact data companies to opt out of having their personal data collected and have such data deleted, but EPIC says this does not truly protect consumers. Says.
The state's original consumer data bill was drafted by Amazon lobbyists and has influenced privacy laws across the country, according to an EPIC report and a Reuters investigation.
Capital News Service previously reported that there was opposition to the bill in 2021 because it did not give consumers the right to sue data controllers for misuse of their data. Instead, the Attorney General's Office will be in charge of enforcement.
EPIC says improved data privacy laws will no longer allow data controllers to decide what personal information is collected. Currently, data controllers can collect anything defined as “relevant” or “reasonably necessary” as long as it is disclosed.
There is growing public interest in how user data is collected on the Internet. According to the Pew Research Center, an overwhelming majority of Americans, 81% of those surveyed, are “concerned about how companies use the data they collect.”
As state legislatures grappled with children's data protection issues, so too did Congress. The world's top social media CEOs, including TikTok's Shou Chu and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, were questioned several weeks ago in an “intense” Senate hearing on the subject of online child exploitation and cyberbullying. received.
Mr. Zuckerberg directly addressed the families who attended the hearing. He apologized for the suffering children face on meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
Tina Manglicmot is the executive director of CodeVA, a nonprofit organization that helps kids get involved in computer science. She emphasized the importance of laws to protect the information of young children who interact with the digital world and cannot always opt out of its use.
“School safety is very important, right? Just like gun safety and violence safety, this is just as important,” Manglikmot said. “It’s great to see our legislators recognizing the importance of this and really pushing for it.”
Manglikhmot also explained that state K-12 curricula already have technology integration standards in place to help educate students about why protecting their personal information online is important. .
The bill now goes to the opposing chamber, where it will be debated and voted on before potentially becoming state law.
Capital News Service is a program of the Virginia Commonwealth University Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in this program provide state government coverage for a variety of Virginia media outlets.
