I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4955
To regulate interstate commerce by prohibiting the sale of children’s 
personally identifiable information for commercial marketing purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 22, 2004
Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To regulate interstate commerce by prohibiting the sale of 
children’s personally identifiable information for commer-
cial marketing 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 Listbroker 
Privacy Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Commercial list brokers routinely advertise 
and sell detailed information on children, including 
names, addresses, ages, and other data, for use in
marketing. This data is commonly available on chil-
dren as young as two years old, enabling marketers 
to target specific demographics such as junior high 
school, elementary school, or even preschool. 
(2) Commercially available marketing databases 
can be very large, covering millions of children. 
(3) Commercially available marketing databases 
can include a variety of information on the children 
they cover, from ethnicity to family income to hob-
bies and interests. 
(4) Money spent on marketing to children has 
been estimated at $12 billion per year. 
(5) Several Federal statutes, including section 
1061 of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Chil-
dren’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and the Fam-
ily and Educational Rights and Privacy Act, restrict 
the collection and disclosure of information about 
children or students under specified circumstances. 
When data on children is collected in a manner that 
is outside the scope of those statutes, however, Fed-
eral law does not significantly restrict the commer-
cial sale or resale of such data. 
(6) The ability to sell information about chil-
dren to marketers for a profit creates an economic 
incentive to find new and creative ways to collect
and compile such information, and possibly to cir-
cumvent or subvert the intent of those federal stat-
utes that do govern the collection of information 
about children or students. There are a variety of 
means and sources that marketers and list brokers 
can and do use to compile names, addresses, and 
other data about children. 
SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON SALE OR PURCHASE OF CHIL-
DREN’S PERSONAL INFORMATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—It is unlawful—
(1) to sell personal information about an indi-
vidual the seller knows to be a child; 
(2) to purchase personal information about an 
individual identified by the seller as a child, for the 
purpose of marketing to that child; or 
(3) for a person who has provided a certifi-
cation pursuant to subsection (b)(2), in connection 
with the purchase of personal information about an 
individual identified by the seller as a child, to en-
gage in any practice that violates the terms of the 
certification. 
(b) EXCEPTIONS.—
(1) PARENTAL CONSENT.—Subsection (a) shall 
not apply to any sale, purchase, or use of personal 
information about a child if the parent of the child
has granted express consent to that sale, purchase, 
or use of the information. 
(2) CERTIFICATION.—Subsection (a)(1) shall 
not apply to the sale of personal information about 
a child if the purchaser certifies to the seller, elec-
tronically or in writing, before the sale is com-
pleted—
(A) the purpose for which the information 
will be used by the purchaser; and 
(B) that the purchaser will neither—
(i) use the information for marketing 
that child; nor 
(ii) permit the information to be used 
by others for the purpose of marketing to 
that child. 
SEC. 4. ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 
(b), this Act shall be enforced by the Federal Trade Com-
mission as if the violation of section 3 of this Act were 
an unfair or deceptive act or practice proscribed under sec-
tion 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 
(15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 
(b) ENFORCEMENT
BY CERTAIN OTHER AGEN-
CIES.—Compliance with this Act shall be enforced 
under—