Throughout his entire career, Senator Markey has been a leader on protecting consumer privacy, especially for children and teens. Markey is the House author of the Children’s Online Privacy Protect Act of 1998 (COPPA), which took major steps towards protecting the personal information of children online. To address evolving technologies, Senator Markey introduced new, bicameral bipartisan legislation to update COPPA, the Do Not Track Kids Act. The legislation would prohibit Internet companies from sending targeted advertising to children and minors; prohibit Internet companies from collecting personal and location information from anyone under 13 without parental consent and anyone 13 to 17 years old without the user’s consent; and require website operators to have an “eraser button” capability for the deletion or elimination of information about children and minors.

Senator Markey introduced legislation to update the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by prohibiting internet companies from collecting personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without parental consent. In 2019, Senator Markey successfully pushed YouTube to prohibit targeted advertising in children’s content on YouTube and prohibit advertisements that are violent, sexually explicit, or age-inappropriate in children’s videos on YouTube.