GUARDIAN Act

In this Act:

(1) Commission. The term Commission means the Federal Trade Commission.

(2) Covered platform. The term covered platform means a platform that is a website, software, application, or electronic service connected to the internet that meets the following requirements:

(A) Is publicly available for use by consumers.

(B) Enables the creation of a username or user identifier—

(i) that is searchable on the platform by other users through a function made available by the platform; and

(ii) that can be followed by or is similarly accessible to other users of the platform.

(C) As the primary purpose of the platform, facilitates the sharing and access to user-generated content through text, images, video, audio, or any other interactive medium.

(D) Uses a design feature to promote user engagement on the platform.

(E) Uses the personal information of the user to advertise, market, or make content recommendations.

(3) Covered minor

(A) The term covered minor means a user who the provider of a covered online platform knows or should have known is under the age of 16.

(B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), an individual who is under the age of 16 and is emancipated from a parent is not a covered minor.

(4) Design feature. The term design feature—

(A) means any feature or component of a covered platform that encourages an increase in or increases the frequency of use or time spent by a user who is a covered minor with respect to such covered platform; and

(B) includes—

(i) infinite scrolling or auto play;

(ii) rewards or incentives based on frequency of use or time spent;

(iii) notifications and push alerts;

(iv) badges or other visual award symbols based on frequency of use or time spent;

(v) appearance altering filters; and

(vi) personalized recommendation systems.

(5) Fully automated system. The term fully automated system means an algorithm the final outputs of which are, once computed, displayed directly to a covered minor without review or alteration by a covered platform.

(6) Parent. The term parent, with respect to a minor, means an adult with the legal right to make decisions on behalf of the minor, including any of the following:

(A) A natural parent.

(B) An adoptive parent.

(C) A legal guardian.

(D) An individual with legal custody over the minor.

(7) Personal data. The term personal data has the meaning given the term personal information in section 1302 of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501).

(8) Personalized recommendation system. The term personalized recommendation system—

(A) means a fully automated system used to suggest, promote, or rank content, including other users, hashtags, and posts, based on the personal data of a user; and

(B) does not include a fully automated system that suggests, promotes, or ranks content based solely on the language, city or town, or age of a user.

(9) Process. The term process means any operation or set of operations performed, whether by manual or automated means, on personal data or on sets of personal data, such as the collection, use, storage, disclosure, analysis, deletion, or modification of personal data.

(10) User. The term user means, with respect to a covered platform, an individual who creates or maintains an account or profile on the covered platform.

(11) Verifiable consent. The term verifiable consent means any reasonable effort (taking into consideration available technology) by the provider of a covered platform, including a request for authorization for future collection, use, and disclosure described in the notice, to ensure that a parent of a covered minor—

(A) receives direct notice of the collection, use, maintenance, disclosure, and other relevant processing practices of the provider of a covered platform with respect to personal data; and

(B) before the personal data of the covered minor is collected, freely and unambiguously authorizes—

(i) the collection, use, maintenance, disclosure, and other relevant processing practices, as applicable, of the personal data; and

(ii) any subsequent use of the personal data.