Miller-Meeks Leads Effort to Protect Children Online with the SPY Kids Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. —  Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) is leading the national effort to safeguard children and teens online through H.R. 6273, the Stop Profiling Youth and Kids (SPY Kids) Act, comprehensive legislation that prohibits major online platforms from conducting market or product-focused research on minors and strengthens parental oversight of data practices.

“Protecting children and teens online is one of the most urgent responsibilities we face as policymakers,” said Miller-Meeks. “Digital platforms have become central to how young people learn, communicate, and navigate the world, and we must ensure these environments are safe, transparent, and built with their well-being, not corporate profit, as the priority. Children and teens should not be profiled, studied, or targeted for commercial advantage, especially without parental oversight. Our goal is simple: to build an online ecosystem where kids can grow, learn, and connect without being exploited in the process.”

The SPY Kids Act establishes new national protections for minors by:

• Banning market or product-focused research on children under 13.
• Requiring verifiable parental consent before platforms conduct such research on teenagers aged 13 to 16.
• Applying these rules to large user-generated content platforms that employ engagement-driven design features, such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and algorithmic recommendations, to promote user activity.
• Reinforcing that the well-being and privacy of minors must come before profit-driven data practices.

If passed by Congress and signed into law, the legislation would be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, with authority also granted to state attorneys general to protect residents and pursue violations.

Background

The SPY Kids Act responds to a digital landscape where platforms are specifically engineered to capture attention, collect sensitive information, and shape behavior, often in ways young users cannot recognize or navigate safely.

Under current conditions, minors may unknowingly be subjected to behavioral profiling, algorithmic analysis, and data-driven marketing tactics. The SPY Kids Act aims to curb these practices by limiting how platforms can analyze, measure, or monetize youth activity.

The bill does not restrict young people from accessing online spaces; instead, it ensures that their information cannot be used for commercial research or engagement-driven profiling without parental oversight, and it strengthens long-standing principles embedded in federal child-privacy protections like COPPA.

Read the full bill text HERE.

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