I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1972
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the sale of personal
information about children without their parents’ consent, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 19, 1997
Mr. FRANKS of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. MCHUGH, Mrs. KELLY, Ms.
MOLINARI, Mr. EVANS, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. DEAL
of Georgia, Mr.
COSTELLO, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. BRYANT, Mr.
PETERSON of Minnesota, Mr. HORN, Ms. GRANGER, Mr. KIM, Mr. KING,
Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. OBERSTAR, Ms. FURSE, Mr.
DEFAZIO, Mr. BARRETT of Wisconsin, Mr. BAKER, Mr. NORWOOD, Mr.
FOX of Pennsylvania, Mr. VENTO, Mr. ROTHMAN, Mr. FAZIO of Califor-
nia, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. NEY, Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO´, Mr. PARKER, Ms.
RIVERS, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CLEMENT, Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, and
Mr. WEXLER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the sale
of personal information about children without their par-
ents’ consent, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Children’s Privacy Pro-
tection and Parental Empowerment Act of 1997’’.
‘‘(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 Vio-
lent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of
1994, for data processing of personal information
about children; or
‘‘(2) distributes or solicits any personal infor-
mation about a child, with the intent of abusing or
causing physical harm to the child or to sexually ex-
ploit the child, or having reason to believe that the
child will be so abused, harmed, or exploited as a re-
sult 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 ac-
tion 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 Ex-
ploited 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 guard-
ian;
‘‘(3) the term ‘personal information’ means in-
formation (including name, address, telephone num-
ber, social security number, electronic mail address,
and physical description) about an individual identi-
fied as a child, that would suffice to locate and con-
tact that individual; and
‘‘(4) the term ‘list broker’ means a person who
provides for remuneration mailing lists, computer-
ized or telephone reference services, databases, or
the like, containing personal information about chil-
dren.’’.
(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.’’.
Æ