A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers has introduced legislation designed to ramp up protection of students’ online privacy.
The proposed Do Not Track Kids Act would expand the provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which became law in 1998.
That law requires operators of commercial websites and Web-based services to put in place safeguards on student privacy when their materials are directed to children 12 and younger. Under the new legislation, those protections would be extended to cover teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15. It would also create an “eraser button,” allowing parents and children to strip out publicly available personal information “when technologically feasible.”
