Guidance

(a) In general Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Commission shall issue guidance to— (1) provide information and examples for covered platforms and auditors regarding the following, with consideration given to differences across English and non-English languages— (A) identifying design features that encourage or increase the frequency, time spent, or activity of minors on the covered platform; (B) safeguarding minors against the possible misuse of parental tools; (C) best practices in providing minors and parents the most protective level of control over privacy and safety; (D) using indicia or inferences of age of users for assessing use of the covered platform by minors; (E) methods for evaluating the efficacy of safeguards set forth in this title; and (F) providing additional parental tool options that allow parents to address the harms described in section 102(a); and (2) outline conduct that does not have the purpose or substantial effect of subverting or impairing user autonomy, decision-making, or choice, or of causing, increasing, or encouraging compulsive usage for a minor, such as— (A) de minimis user interface changes derived from testing consumer preferences, including different styles, layouts, or text, where such changes are not done with the purpose of weakening or disabling safeguards or parental tools; (B) algorithms or data outputs outside the control of a covered platform; and (C) establishing default settings that provide enhanced privacy protection to users or otherwise enhance their autonomy and decision-making ability. (b) Guidance on knowledge standard Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Commission shall issue guidance to provide information, including best practices and examples, for covered platforms to understand how the Commission would determine whether a covered platform had knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances for purposes of this title. (c) Limitation on Federal Trade Commission guidance (1) Effect of guidance No guidance issued by the Federal Trade Commission with respect to this title shall— (A) confer any rights on any person, State, or locality; or (B) operate to bind the Federal Trade Commission or any court, person, State, or locality to the approach recommended in such guidance. (2) Use in enforcement actions In any enforcement action brought pursuant to this title, the Federal Trade Commission or a State attorney general, as applicable— (A) shall allege a violation of a provision of this title; and (B) may not base such enforcement action on, or execute a consent order based on, practices that are alleged to be inconsistent with guidance issued by the Federal Trade Commission with respect to this title, unless the practices are alleged to violate a provision of this title. For purposes of enforcing this title, State attorneys general shall take into account any guidance issued by the Commission under subsection (b).