Fairplay Welcomes New FTC Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Jan. 16, 2024

Ashwin Verghese
717 676 8584
[email protected]

FAIRPLAY WELCOMES NEW FTC CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT RULE

Fairplay, the leading nonprofit committed to helping children thrive in an increasingly commercialized, screen-obsessed culture, today welcomed the Federal Trade Commission’s new Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. 

“The new Rule offers critical new protections for children and should serve as a wake-up call to an industry that far too often collects and uses kids’ data in deceptive and exploitative ways,” Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin said. “We’re pleased to see the Commission adopt several of the strong protections we recommended in our joint comments to the FTC with other child advocacy groups last year, including requiring separate parental consent for sharing data with advertisers and other third parties; limiting data retention; and expanding the definition of personal information to include biometrics.” 

Golin added: “As evidenced by the unanimous vote in support of the Rule, there is a growing bipartisan consensus that children need better protections online. We urge Congress to quickly pass an update to COPPA that bans targeted advertising to minors and extends privacy protections to teens.”

Highlighted protections

Fairplay highlighted several new protections under the COPPA rule that reflect recommendations Fairplay and 10 other health, privacy, consumer protection and child rights groups made in comments filed at the FTC last year.

  • Language requiring separate parental consent for sharing data with advertisers and other third parties: Previously, the FTC allowed companies to provide one notice and consent mechanism for all COPPA compliance, forcing parents to consent to unnecessary sharing of their children’s data. Under the new Rule, however, companies will need to provide a separate notice and consent for any data being shared with third parties, including advertisers.  
  • Limits on data retention: Many apps and platforms treat children’s personal information as if it’s theirs to keep for as long as they want and for any purpose they choose. In the new Rule, the FTC clarifies that a covered entity can only keep a child’s data as long as it’s needed to fulfill the original purpose for which it was collected. 
  • Expanding the definition of personal information to include biometrics: As requested by Fairplay and other advocates, the definition of biometric information has been expanded to include biometric information.