Recent Legal Actions Highlight Issues of Children’s Online Privacy

Companies with online sites and services that expressly target a young audience, such as websites and mobile apps providing entertainment, games or educational enrichment specifically oriented toward children, should already be very familiar with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the Federal Trade Commission’s COPPA rule. Companies operating outside of that specialized, child-oriented arena, however, may be less familiar with the statute.

This article examines recent FTC rulings, which indicate that the agency intends to enforce COPPA broadly and that even general audience sites not intended for children can run afoul of COPPA for collecting basic personal information from children.