[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 22, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E880-E881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CHILDREN'S PRIVACY PROTECTION AND PARENTAL EMPOWERMENT ACT INTRODUCED

                                 ______


                            HON. BOB FRANKS

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 22, 1996

  Mr. FRANKS of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the 
Children's Privacy Protection and Parental Empowerment Act--
groundbreaking legislation that will give parents control over the use 
of personal information about their children.
  The information revolution has opened up exciting opportunities for 
all Americans. It is already offering consumers more choices than ever 
before, But while instant access to more information can be a positive 
development in our lives, this technology can also be manipulated by 
those who want to prey upon the weak or make an easy buck regardless of 
the consequences.
  As the information age continues to unfold, Congress has an 
obligation to monitor the new technology and make sure that reasonable 
safeguards are in place to protect the most vulnerable among us--our 
children.
  The safety and privacy of our children is already being threatened by 
one product of the information explosion. Every day in communities 
across America, parents stop by a local fast food restaurant with their 
kids and sign

[[Page E881]]

them up for a birthday club. Others dress their children up to have a 
picture taken by a professional photographer and fill out a form before 
the picture is snapped. Or maybe they're at the local supermarket when 
they fill out a consumer survey about their family's buying habits in 
exchange for a free product or some discount coupons.
  What these parents probably don't know is that the personal and 
sometimes sensitive information they've innocently provided about their 
children is for sale. And anyone, anytime can purchase it. Commercial 
list companies are using that information to develop an elaborate data 
base on virtually every child in America. They're gathering children's 
complete names, ages, addresses, and phone numbers--and often even 
their personal likes and dislikes.
  And the fact is these list vendors sell this information freely to 
whoever wants to purchase it. Anyone with nothing more than a mailing 
address can contact a list vendor and order a specific list. It might 
be the names, addresses and phone numbers of all children living in a 
neighborhood--or a listing of all 10-year-old boys in a particular 
community who have a video game systems. And the cost of this 
information is relatively inexpensive.
  Most parents have no idea that information about their children is 
for sale by hundreds of list vendors. Often, parents have no idea why 
their children are solicited by direct mail advertisers or tele-
marketers. But the danger of this information winding up in the wrong 
hands is very real and very frightening.
  Earlier this month a news report by KCBS-TV in Los Angeles vividly 
demonstrated the threat to our children's safety from the uncontrolled 
sale of information about children. The station ordered a list of the 
names, addresses, and phone numbers of 5,000 Los Angeles children from 
the Nation's largest distributor of lists, Metromail. It placed the 
order in the name of Richard Allen Davis, the man now on trial for 
kidnapping 12-year-old Polly Klaas from her Sausilito home and 
murdering her. After providing nothing more than a fake name, mailing 
address and a disconnected phone number, the list arrived the next day. 
The cost: just $277, cash on delivery.
  We must act now to protect our children before a real murderer or 
child molester buys a list of potential victims. There's something 
fundamentally wrong when society takes more care in protecting 
information about criminals than it does in protecting information 
about our children from those who would harm them.
  The most important provision of the Children's Privacy Protection and 
Parental Empowerment Act would ensure that personal information about a 
child could no longer be bought and sold without a parent's consent. 
Concern about protecting the privacy and safety of children has brought 
together a broad cross-section of groups in support of this initiative 
including the Center for Media Education, the Christian Coalition, the 
Consumer Federation of America, the Electronic Privacy Information 
Center, Enough is Enough, the Family Research Council, the Kids Off 
Lists Coalition, the Klaas Foundation for Children, the National Law 
Center for Children, and Families and Privacy Times. While there may be 
little we can do to stop a child molester from stalking children when 
they're playing in the park or walking home from school, our 
legislation takes some commonsense steps to protect the privacy of 
children.
  The legislation would give parents the right to compel list brokers 
to release to them all the information they have compiled about their 
child. In addition, the list vendor would have to turn over to the 
parents the name of anyone to whom they have distributed personal 
information about their child. Our bill would force list vendors to be 
more diligent about verifying the identify of companies and individuals 
seeking to buy lists of children. Specifically, it would be a criminal 
offense for a list vendor to provide personal information about 
children to anyone it has reason to believe would use that information 
to harm a child. Finally, there is a provision in the bill to address 
an alarming practice that was actually used by one list company. The 
company had a contract with a Texas prison for data entry services. 
That means that prisoners, including child molesters and pedophiles, 
were being handed personal information about children to enter into a 
computer data base. Although the company no longer uses prison labor, 
our bill would prohibit this dangerous practice from ever being used 
again. Prisoners and convicted sex offenders would never again have 
access to personal information about children.
  In today's high-tech information age--when access to information on 
our personal lives is just a keystroke or phone call away--our children 
need this special protection. I urge my colleagues to support the 
Children's Privacy Protection and Parental Empowerment Act.

                          ____________________