Congress moves to ban selling kids' data to advertisers and brokers

What it does

This bill prohibits data brokers from collecting, selling, or sharing personal data of children (under 13) and teens (13–17). It requires data brokers to delete such data upon request within 10 days, establish a public mechanism for deletion requests, and notify users when data is deleted. The FTC enforces the rule as an unfair trade practice; states and individuals can sue for violations, with statutory damages of at least $1,000 per violation and treble damages for willful violations.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core function is straightforward: prohibit data brokers from commercializing children's and teens' personal data. It is a consumer-protection statute with a clear public-health rationale (protecting minors from commercial surveillance and exploitation).

What the text implies

• The 10-day deletion deadline may create operational burden for data brokers with large datasets, potentially raising compliance costs that could be passed to other customers or reduce data-broker profitability.
• Private right of action with $1,000 minimum statutory damages per violation may incentivize class-action litigation; data brokers could face significant aggregate liability if they maintain even small amounts of minor data across many individuals.
• Definition of 'knows' (actual or fairly implied knowledge) may create liability for data brokers who fail to implement age-verification systems, even if they did not intentionally target minors.
• Exclusion for 'service providers' and entities whose product is not data itself may create loopholes for platforms (e.g., social media, gaming) that collect minor data but claim they are not 'data brokers' because data is not their primary product.
• State enforcement authority and private right of action together create multiple enforcement pathways, potentially leading to inconsistent application or duplicative litigation.

Who it affects

Children and teens gain direct protection against commercial exploitation of their personal data, with enforceable deletion rights and private right of action. Parents and teens themselves can demand removal of data. The only cost is to data brokers' business model; no burden falls on ordinary citizens.

Who stands to gain

• privacy-focused technology vendors (age-verification, data deletion tools)
• law firms specializing in consumer protection litigation

Named in the bill

Federal Trade Commission (FTC), data brokers, state attorneys general, children (under 13), teens (13–17), parents and legal guardians

Where it stands

• Nov 25, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Nov 25, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade”
• Dec 11, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

11 lobbying clients named this bill on 18 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $4,245,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 16 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 92% of bills with at least one filing.

Frank Pallone, the sponsor, reported $1,601,749 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Fox Corporation — $1,340,000 on 1 filing
• Cox Enterprises Inc. — $1,320,000 on 2 filings
• News Media Alliance — $475,000 on 1 filing
• Tnc (us) Holdings Inc — $250,000 on 2 filings
• Lexisnexis Risk Solutions Fl Inc. — $210,000 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.