S836-119

Passed Senate

Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act

119th Congress Introduced Mar 4, 2025

Summary

What This Bill Does

Modernizes the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by covering teens ages 13 through 16 and by applying the law to websites, online services, online applications, mobile applications, and connected devices. It expands personal information to include persistent identifiers, device identifiers, images, audio, geolocation, and inferred or measured data; tightens disclosure, retention, and individual-specific advertising rules; creates stronger review, correction, deletion, and service-continuation rights; preserves a limited school written-agreement path; and requires FTC reports, guidance, enforcement reporting, and a GAO fintech privacy study.

Who Benefits and How

Children under 13, teens ages 13 through 16, parents, guardians, school districts, privacy advocacy organizations, and teen fintech users benefit from broader consent, data-minimization, correction, deletion, and advertising protections. The FTC and congressional commerce committees benefit from annual enforcement reports and a study of app platform oversight. GAO and Congress get a focused report on financial technology products used by teens and whether existing laws address teen privacy risks.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Commercial website operators, online service providers, mobile app developers, social media platforms, connected device makers, smart toy manufacturers, advertising networks, data brokers, app stores, and fintech companies serving teens must update consent flows, data-retention practices, ad targeting, privacy notices, deletion tools, school contracting pathways, and compliance documentation. FTC and GAO must issue reports, guidance, and studies.

Key Provisions

  • Expands COPPA coverage from children to children and teens ages 13 through 16.
  • Expands covered services to online applications, mobile applications, and connected devices.
  • Broadens personal information to include persistent identifiers, device identifiers, images, audio, geolocation, and inferred or measured information.
  • Restricts individual-specific advertising to children or teens and tightens retention of personal information.
  • Provides parent and teen review, correction, deletion, and service-continuation rights.
  • Allows a limited educational-agency written-agreement consent pathway.
  • Requires FTC app-platform oversight reports, annual enforcement reports, guidance, and a GAO study of teen fintech privacy.

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

Extends COPPA-style privacy protections to teens ages 13 through 16, broadens covered operators and personal information, restricts targeted advertising and retention, strengthens parent and teen rights, and adds FTC and GAO oversight of child and teen online privacy.

Key Policy Areas

Technology, Privacy, Consumer Protection

Primary Purpose

Extends COPPA-style privacy protections to teens ages 13 through 16, broadens covered operators and personal information, restricts targeted advertising and retention, strengthens parent and teen rights, and adds FTC and GAO oversight of child and teen online privacy.

Policy Domains

Technology Privacy Consumer Protection

Substantive provisions

Identified Gains
  • Children under 13
  • Teens ages 13 through 16
  • Parents and guardians
  • School districts
  • Privacy advocacy organizations
  • Teen fintech users
  • Congressional commerce committees
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
School districts: , ,
Children under 13: , ,
Teen fintech users: , ,
Parents and guardians: , ,
Teens ages 13 through 16: , ,
Privacy advocacy organizations: , ,
Congressional commerce committees: , ,
Identified Costs
  • Commercial website operators
  • Mobile app developers
  • Social media platforms
  • Connected device makers
  • Smart toy manufacturers
  • Advertising networks
  • Data brokers
  • Financial technology companies
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
Data brokers: , ,
Advertising networks: , ,
Mobile app developers: , ,
Social media platforms: , ,
Connected device makers: , ,
Smart toy manufacturers: , ,
Commercial website operators: , ,
Financial technology companies: , ,

Legislative Progress

Passed Senate
Introduced Committee Passed
Mar 16, 2026

Held at the desk.

Mar 16, 2026

Received in the House.

Mar 16, 2026

Message on Senate action sent to the House.

Mar 5, 2026

Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with amendments by Unanimous …

Mar 5, 2026

Passed Senate with amendments by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S860-869; …

Jan 27, 2026

Reported by Mr. Cruz, with amendments

Jan 27, 2026

Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. …

Jan 27, 2026

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz …

Jun 25, 2025

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported …

Mar 4, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, …

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

General Public
9 mentions across 3 clauses
+9 positive

Children under 13, Parents of minor users, Teens ages 13 through 16

Technology
8 mentions across 4 clauses
-8 negative

App store platforms, Child-directed app developers, Commercial website operators serving minors

Government
4 mentions across 4 clauses
-4 negative

Federal Trade Commission, Government Accountability Office

Consumers
3 mentions across 3 clauses
-3 negative

Connected device makers serving minors

Advertising / Marketing
3 mentions across 3 clauses
-3 negative

Advertising networks targeting minors

Data Services
3 mentions across 3 clauses
-3 negative

Data brokers targeting minors

2/5
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Technology Privacy Consumer Protection
Actor Mappings
"gao"
→ Government Accountability Office
"operator"
→ commercial online operator
"commission"
→ Federal Trade Commission

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology