HR 369 IH

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the sale of personal information about children without their parents' consent, and for other purposes.

January 19, 1999

Mr. FRANKS of New Jersey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the sale of personal information about children without their parents' consent, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Children's Privacy Protection and Parental Empowerment Act of 1999'.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN ACTIVITIES RELATING TO PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT CHILDREN.

(a) IN GENERAL- Chapter 89 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`Sec. 1822. Sale of personal information about children

`(a) Whoever, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, being a list broker, knowingly--

`(1) sells, purchases, or receives remuneration for providing personal information about a child, knowing that such information pertains to a child, without the written consent of a parent of that child;

`(2) conditions any sale or service to a child or to that child's parent on the granting of such a consent; or

`(3) fails to comply with the request of a parent--

`(A) to disclose the source of personal information offered for sale or remuneration by the list broker about that parent's child;

`(B) to disclose all information that has been sold or otherwise disclosed by that list broker about that child;

`(C) to disclose the identity of all persons to whom the list broker has sold or otherwise disclosed personal information about that child; or

`(D) to discontinue providing personal information to third parties about that parent's child;

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 1 year, or both.

`(b) Whoever, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, being a person who uses, in the course of commerce, any personal information about a child under age 16, that was obtained for commercial purposes, to contact that child or a parent of that child to offer a commercial product or service to that child, knowingly fails to comply with the request of a parent--

`(1) to disclose the source of personal information about that parent's child;

`(2) to disclose all information that has been sold or otherwise disclosed by that list broker about that child;

`(3) to disclose the identity of all persons to whom personal information about that child has been disclosed; or

`(4) to discontinue providing personal information to third parties about that parent's child;

shall be fined not more than $5,000.

`(c) Whoever, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly--

`(1) uses prison inmate labor, or any worker who is registered pursuant to title XVII of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, for data processing of personal information about children; or

`(2) distributes or solicits any personal information about a child, with the intent of abusing or causing physical harm to the child or to sexually exploit the child, or having reason to believe that the child will be so abused, harmed, or exploited as a result of that distribution or solicitation;

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

`(d) Whoever, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly releases personal information about another person's child to any entity that intends to use the information to solicit the sale of a product or service, without the permission of that child's parent, shall be fined not more than $5,000.

`(e) A child or a parent of a child with respect to whom a violation of this section occurs may in a civil action obtain appropriate relief, including statutory money damages of not less than $5,000. The court shall award a prevailing plaintiff in a civil action under this subsection a reasonable attorney's fee as a part of the costs.

`(f) Nothing in this section affects the sale of lists to--

`(1) the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children;

`(2) accredited colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning;

`(3) the United States military; or

`(4) local, State, or Federal law enforcement agencies.

`(g) It shall be the duty of each list broker operating in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce to make that broker's databases available twice annually, without charge, to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, established under section 404(b) of the Missing Children's Assistance Act, in order to allow the Center to match it with the database of missing children held by the Center.

`(h) As used in this section--

`(1) the term `child' means a person who has not attained the age of 16 years;

`(2) the term `parent' includes a legal guardian;

`(3) the term `personal information' means information (including name, address, telephone number, social security number, electronic mail address, and physical description) about an individual identified as a child, that would suffice to locate and contact that individual; and

`(4) the term `list broker' means a person who provides for remuneration mailing lists, computerized or telephone reference services, databases, or the like, containing personal information about children.'.

(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 89 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new item:

`1822. Sale of personal information about children.'.

END