I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 413
To establish requirements for the labeling and user agreements of internet-
connected toys for children, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY20, 2023
Mr. E
DWARDSintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To establish requirements for the labeling and user agree-
ments of internet-connected toys for children, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Transparency Over 4
Toys Spying Act’’ or the ‘‘TOTS Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. LABELING AND USER AGREEMENT REQUIREMENTS 6
FOR INTERNET-CONNECTED TOYS. 7
(a) R
EGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after the 8
date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 9
promulgate under section 553 of title 5, United States 10
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Code, regulations that require a manufacturer introducing 1
into interstate commerce an internet-connected toy to in-2
clude— 3
(1) on the packaging associated with the toy, a 4
label that clearly indicates— 5
(A) that the toy has the ability to— 6
(i) connect to the internet; and 7
(ii) collect and transmit the personal 8
information of a user of the toy; and 9
(B) whether personal information collected 10
by the toy is retained— 11
(i) in the toy; or 12
(ii) by the manufacturer or another 13
entity; and 14
(2) in any user agreement or privacy policy as-15
sociated with the toy, highlighted information that is 16
easy to read, is the first text presented by the agree-17
ment or policy, and describes— 18
(A) how personal information may be col-19
lected by the toy and what personal information 20
may be collected; 21
(B) what personal information may be re-22
tained in the toy; 23
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(C) what personal information may be 1
transmitted from the toy and to whom the per-2
sonal information may be transmitted; 3
(D) how transmitted personal information 4
may be provided to, retained, and used by the 5
manufacturer or another entity; 6
(E) any actions taken by the manufacturer 7
to minimize the collection, retention, or trans-8
mission of personal information; 9
(F) the protections available to the user 10
with respect to collected, retained, or trans-11
mitted personal information, including protec-12
tions under Federal law; and 13
(G) whether the toy can be used in a man-14
ner that prevents the collection, retention, or 15
transmission of personal information, including 16
without connection to the internet or another 17
internet-connected device. 18
(b) E
NFORCEMENT BY FEDERALTRADECOMMIS-19
SION.— 20
(1) U
NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -21
TICES.—A violation of a regulation promulgated 22
under subsection (a) shall be treated as a violation 23
of a regulation under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the 24
Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 25
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•HR 413 IH
57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or deceptive acts or 1
practices. 2
(2) P
OWERS OF COMMISSION .—The Commis-3
sion shall enforce the regulations promulgated under 4
subsection (a) in the same manner, by the same 5
means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, and 6
duties as though all applicable terms and provisions 7
of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 8
et seq.) were incorporated into and made a part of 9
this Act. Any person who violates such a regulation 10
shall be subject to the penalties and entitled to the 11
privileges and immunities provided in the Federal 12
Trade Commission Act. 13
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 14
(1) I
NTERNET-CONNECTED TOY .—The term 15
‘‘internet-connected toy’’ means a device— 16
(A) introduced into interstate commerce 17
and targeted to a child or likely to be operated 18
by a child; 19
(B) the purpose of which is entertainment 20
or amusement; 21
(C) that is able to be connected to the 22
internet, directly or through another internet- 23
connected device; and 24
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(D) through which the personal informa-1
tion of a child may be collected and transmitted 2
to a person other than the child or the parent 3
of the child. 4
(2) P
ERSONAL INFORMATION .—The term ‘‘per-5
sonal information’’ means individually identifiable 6
information about an individual, including— 7
(A) a first and last name; 8
(B) a home or other physical address, in-9
cluding street name and name of a city or town; 10
(C) an e-mail address; 11
(D) a telephone number; 12
(E) a Social Security number; 13
(F) a photo, video, or audio recording; 14
(G) any other identifier that the Commis-15
sion determines permits the physical or online 16
contacting of a specific individual; or 17
(H) information concerning a child or the 18
parents of that child collected from the child 19
and combined with an identifier described in 20
this paragraph. 21
(3) T
ERMS DEFINED IN CHILDREN ’S ONLINE 22
PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT OF 1998 .—The terms 23
‘‘child’’, ‘‘Commission’’, ‘‘parent’’, and ‘‘person’’ 24
have the meanings given each of those terms respec-25
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tively in section 1302 of the Children’s Online Pri-1
vacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501). 2
Æ
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