Currently, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (“COPPA”), requires operators of children’s websites to obtain parental consent before they collect the personal information of children under the age of 13. However, COPPA has not kept up with the rapid change in technology that has caused corporations and app developers to collect information about children’s online activities without parental awareness. Some websites and apps have also collected children’s photographs and location information of mobile devices. Privacy advocates are concerned that the collected information could be used to identify or locate individual children.
Currently, these practices are legal, but the FTC is seeking to overhaul the rules that have fallen behind new technology. New rules are expected within the next few weeks. Some of the proposed changes would
increase the need for children’s websites to obtain parental permission for some practices like using cookies to track users’ activities around the Web over time as well as getting parental permission for children under the age of 13 to submit a photograph of him or herself.
Marketers contend that COPPA does not need such an extensive change because it would limit what websites could offer to children. Additionally, advertising industries believe no change is needed because the current law is working well.
However, the Center for Digital Democracy filed complaints with the FTC last month that accused several corporations of violating COPPA by collecting e-mail addresses without parental consent. The complaints also ask the FTC to investigate these companies for unfair and deceptive marketing practices they believe induced children to engage in viral marketing.
If the FTC implements its proposed changes, children’s websites would be required to obtain parental permission before tracking children around the Web for advertising purposes.
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