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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed two legislative measures Thursday aimed at better protecting personal information online from Big Tech, including a bill that makes Maryland the second state to do so seeks to introduce strict restrictions on the information collected on children.
The measure, known as the Maryland Kids Code, aims to limit the data that could be collected from children online and protect them from being inundated with harmful material they weren’t looking for.
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“Look, the bottom line is that Big Tech has exploited and victimized our children for far, far too long,” said state Sen. Ben Kramer, a Democrat in a suburb of the nation’s capital.
Big tech companies tried to reassure lawmakers that the industry could solve the problem without government interference, Kramer noted. “But the fact is that Big Tech has gotten fat and greedy because the fox is guarding the chicken coop because they have put cash ahead of our children,” the senator said.
Supporters say the new child protection law is designed to withstand legal challenges like those that killed a California law. For example, the measure takes into account case law and established consumer protection law, said supporters.
Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of NetChoice, said the group shares lawmakers’ desire to better protect children online. “But that goal can be achieved in a way that does not violate the Constitution and entail a litany of serious, unintended consequences,” he said.
NetChoice is a commercial association whose members include Google, Amazon, Meta and TikTok. It challenged California law.
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“Unfortunately, the legislation signed by Governor Moore today will not achieve its goal of creating a safer online environment for young Marylanders. An unconstitutional law protects no one. By disregarding the rights and privacy of their citizens, Maryland lawmakers have unfortunately embarked on a path that will leave everyone worse off – especially children,” Szabo said in an email.
Under the law, with some limited exceptions, companies would not be able to, by default, create a profile of a child or process personal data that is not reasonably necessary to provide an online product with which the child actively and knowingly interacts.
Del. Jared Solomon, a sponsor of the bill, said lawmakers were careful to ensure the measure was not intended to moderate available content. He said protective language was added to ensure a child could not be prevented from searching for content online.
“If you want to go and look for things you probably shouldn’t be looking at, we’re not going to take that off the internet,” said Solomon, a Democrat from Montgomery. “But what we tell companies is that you shouldn’t necessarily collect data about someone and assume that it’s the content that person wants to see.”
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Design It For Us, a coalition that advocates for safer social media and online platforms for children, praised the new law.
“We hope this will prompt other states to adopt and pass much-needed child code laws and end Big Tech’s power over our security and privacy,” said Zamaan Qureshi, one of the group’s co-chairs .
The governor, a Democrat, also signed the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act of 2024.
The new law will impose certain obligations on companies to protect an individual’s personal information. For example, a company in possession of personal information must implement and maintain security procedures and practices to protect the information from unauthorized access, use, modification, or disclosure.
“It sets limits on the amount of data companies can collect about people online and what they do with that data, giving consumers more control over their own data,” Del said. Sara Love, a Montgomery County Democrat who sponsored the measure.
The new law will also create consumer protections and rights and disclosure requirements regarding online personal information controlled or processed by certain companies that do business in Maryland or provide services or products directed to residents of the state.
A consumer also has the right to object to the processing of personal data for targeted advertising, the sale of personal data and certain profiling activities.
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