Testimony

Written Testimony Before the Senate Commerce Committee: Consumer Perspectives: Policy Principles for a Federal Data Privacy Framework

May 2019 🇺🇸 U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

Ten years after his 2009 testimony, Jim Steyer returned to the Senate Commerce Committee to argue for a federal consumer-privacy law modeled on the California Consumer Privacy Act, which Common Sense Media had sponsored. He testified that children face heightened privacy risks, citing Common Sense's own survey research that large majorities of parents and teens want clearer data-collection disclosures and opt-in consent before data is sold, and pointed to outside research finding many child-directed mobile apps may not meet federal children's-privacy-law standards. Steyer characterized manipulative platform design and behavioral ad targeting aimed at children as practices that should be off-limits regardless of consent, and argued any federal law should set a floor, not a ceiling, on state protections. TechKids Foundation includes this as Steyer's most detailed public testimony on the CCPA's origins and children's data privacy.

98% of children under 8 have home access to a mobile device

Steyer's testimony cited Common Sense Media's own research finding that 98% of children under age 8 in the U.S. have access to a mobile device at home.

American teens average about 9 hours of media use per day

The testimony cited Common Sense Media research putting average daily teen media use at about 9 hours, and noted that about half of teens surveyed said they felt they could not cut back on their device use.

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CITATION

Steyer, James P. Written Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, hearing on "Consumer Perspectives: Policy Principles for a Federal Data Privacy Framework." May 1, 2019.

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