Senate Reintroduces Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act

On March 4, Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) reintroduced the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), which aims to modernize the original COPPA passed in 1998 and strengthen protections for the online personal information of children and teens.^Footnote1

COPPA 2.0 would make several changes to the original COPPA law. Notably, it aims to protect online information collected from children and teens, raising the age range of individuals protected to those under seventeen. It also seeks to prohibit targeted advertising to children and teens that fall under the new age range proposed in the legislation, and it requires covered operators of websites, online services, online applications, and mobile applications to permit users to delete personal information collected from a child or teen.^Footnote2

Although COPPA 2.0 made significant progress toward being passed into law during the 118th Congress, those efforts ultimately fell short. In July 2024, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA)—which combined COPPA 2.0 and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)—by a bipartisan vote of 91–3.^Footnote3 The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a markup for the legislation in September 2024, and COPPA 2.0 was passed out of committee by a voice vote. After the markup, efforts to pass COPPA 2.0 were stalled. However, at the end of 2024, a last-minute attempt to pass COPPA 2.0 during the 118th Congress was made by aiming to tack the bill onto the continuing resolution to extend government funding through March 2025. The bill was ultimately left out of the continuing resolution and did not pass Congress during the 118th session.

The Future of COPPA 2.0 and KOSA

COPPA 2.0 legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. A markup has not yet been announced, and it is unknown if the chamber will act quickly on this bill. A House version of COPPA 2.0 has not yet been reintroduced.

KOSA, which served as COPPA 2.0's companion bill in KOSPA, has not been reintroduced in the House or Senate. KOSA is aimed at placing a "duty of care" on online platforms for minors using their platforms. It would mandate these platforms to provide minors with "readily accessible and easy-to-use safeguards" to mitigate harms associated with minors' use of the platforms. Notably, higher education and libraries were explicitly excluded from the definition of a covered platform in the version considered in the 118th Congress. However, it was unclear whether institutions could be pulled into the requirements of the bill when they use connections or content from social media platforms on their websites and in their applications.^Footnote4 It remains to be seen if COPPA 2.0 will be combined with KOSA again during this Congress.

EDUCAUSE will continue monitoring for status updates on COPPA 2.0 and KOSA and keep members apprised of new information.

Notes

1. Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act, S. 836, 119^th Congress (2025). Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.↩
2. Ibid. Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.↩
3. Bailey Graves, "Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act Passes Senate, House Committee Passes New Version," EDUCAUSE Review, October 28, 2024. Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.↩
4. Kids Online Safety Act, S. 1409, 118^th Congress (2023); Bailey Graves, "The Kids Online Safety Act Faces an Unclear Future," EDUCAUSE Review, April 17, 2024. Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.↩

Bailey Graves is Senior Associate at Ulman Public Policy.