Sponsor
Frank Pallone
Representative · D-NJ
Representative · D-NJ
The bill gives children and their families stronger privacy rights and new enforcement avenues against data brokers, trading off increased compliance and litigation costs for businesses plus some regulatory ambiguity and potential gaps that could constrain beneficial data uses.
Children and teens — and their parents/guardians — gain stronger privacy and direct control over minors' personal data: covered data brokers must stop collecting or sharing minors' data, provide notice, and delete data on request (generally within 10 days), which should also reduce targeted advertising and commercial profiling of minors.
Individuals (including parents/guardians and authorized agents) can sue data brokers for violations and recover actual damages (with a statutory floor of $1,000 per violation) plus attorneys' fees, creating a private enforcement incentive to deter misuse of minors' data.
State attorneys general gain an enforcement tool (parens patriae actions) to protect residents' minors, increasing local oversight and additional remedies beyond federal enforcement.
Data brokers and affected businesses — including small firms and tech vendors — will incur increased compliance costs to identify, delete, and document minors' data and to operate deletion/notice mechanisms.
Firms face heightened litigation exposure (statutory damages with a $1,000 floor, treble damages for willful violations, and awards of attorneys' fees), increasing legal risk and encouraging defensive over‑compliance or costly litigation.
Ambiguities in key terms (e.g., what it means to 'know' a person is a minor or what data is 'reasonably linkable') create compliance uncertainty and likely disputes over scope, increasing implementation complexity for firms and enforcers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bans data brokers from selling or sharing personal data they know belongs to children or teens and requires deletion on request within 10 days.
Prohibits data brokers from collecting, selling, sharing, or otherwise making available personal data that the broker knows belongs to children or teens, requires prompt deletion on request, and directs the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the law. It also gives state attorneys general the ability to sue to stop violations and obtain relief on behalf of their residents. The bill requires public disclosure of an easy deletion-request mechanism, mandates deletion and a 10-day response timeline, preserves existing FTC authority, and treats violations as FTC-rule violations subject to the Commission’s enforcement tools.
Official title: To prohibit data brokers from collecting, using, or maintaining the personal data of certain minors, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 25, 2025 by Frank Pallone · Last progress November 25, 2025