Two dozen state attorneys general are asking a federal agency to implement better online protections for children.
The bipartisan coalition submitted a letter to the Federal Trade Commission on Monday asking the agency to strengthen the rules surrounding the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13. The letter also asked for enhanced prohibitions on using that information to track children on the internet.
"Without modification to the current rule, companies will continue to build profiles on children based on collected data," Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III said in a statement. "Those profiles will be used to target them for many decades to come."
The letter says that websites and mobile applications often collect personal information from users, ranging from search histories to geological information. The attorneys general are requesting the FTC "clamp down" on collecting information on children behavioral advertising and examine how federal rules apply to school-issued laptops that are free as long as companies can collect information.
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