Children’s Privacy Law Needs Updating, Advocate Tells Lawmakers

Children’s privacy law is “badly in need of updating” with better protections as kids spend more time online and digital marketing becomes more powerful, a professor and advocate told senators weighing a legislative fix.

Lawmakers should set a new standard for seeking permission to collect data when apps or websites know that children are on their platforms, according to Angela Campbell from Georgetown University Law Center. She chairs the board of the nonprofit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which has filed children’s privacy complaints with regulators against platforms such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google Play Store and YouTube.

Digital platforms are ...