1. Urge Congress to Protect Children’s Online Privacy

Threats to children’s privacy are increasing at alarming rates, especially in the digital space. Internet companies are collecting children’s data, including learning data like thinking characteristics, learning trajectory, response time, pages read, and more. This kind of data can be used by marketers to target children who cannot differentiate between advertising and honest content. The risks of this kind of targeted marketing to children limit their potential self-development in childhood, adolescence, and possibly adulthood. At its worst, it can severely harm their mental and emotional health and physical well-being.

In July of 2022, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation approved two bipartisan bills that would update legislation to increase the age for online protection for children, S.1628 and S. 3663. The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy and Protection Act is a law from 1998 that S.1628 seeks to update to increase the age of protections from 13 to 15 years old. This means that internet companies would be prohibited from collecting the personal information of anyone under 16 years old without consent. The bill would also ban targeted marketing to those children. The bill would create a “Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for Minors” and would implement a Youth Privacy and Marketing Division at the FTC. Kids Online Safety Act (S.3663) was also approved by the committee and would give parents more control over their children’s online activities to “better protect their health and well-being”.

Supporting measures to improve children’s security would fulfill the Church’s call to promote child protection policies, and to regulate technology companies to protect children and youth from unreasonable surveillance, personal data collection, addictive features, and harmful content. This legislation helps to create physically and emotionally safe environments for children.

2. Urge Congress to Pass the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act

This week the president will host the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. This conference is aimed at galvanizing a whole-of-society strategy to address the challenges of food insecurity and lack of access to nutritious meals that negatively impact the health and quality of life of so many Americans. In the wake of the first White House Hunger Conference in more than 50 years, it is time for Congress to pass the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act.

H.R.8450, the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act will reauthorize critical child nutrition programs while providing important reforms that will further the goal of ending child hunger. Specifically, H.R.8450 would:

• Expand access to free school meals
• Modernize the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
• Address summer food insecurity through changes to the Summer EBT Program
• Improve school meal capacity and infrastructure
• Strengthen the Child and Adult Care Food Program

Congress must work urgently to address the challenge of child hunger. With the spotlight on this issue by the White House Hunger Conference, we must work together to feed the hungry, as Christ calls us to do in the gospels.

Please send a message to your Representatives and Senators and urge them to prioritize the protection of children in the digital age and urge them to pass the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act!

Options to Take Action:

1. Sign on to the letters at the Action Table outside the church on Sunday morning.
2. Download a copy of the Action Letter that you can sign and mail.
   Letter for California or Letter for Outside California
   
3. Click on the links to the Episcopal Public Policy Actions for On Line Privacy and Healthy Meals.

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If you ever need to look up your member of the U.S. House of Representatives or your U.S. Senators check here: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.

To find contact information for your California State Senator or California State Assemblymember check here: www.senate.ca.gov and www.assembly.ca.gov.