CDT Statement on FTC’s Proposed COPPA Revisions
Washington—Today the FTC released its Proposed Revisions to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule. CDT is encouraged that the proposal does not recommend expanding the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to cover older minors or placing requirements on websites that have only a general knowledge that some of their users are children.
"The FTC proposal respects older minors’ constitutional right to access information without first obtaining parental consent," said CDT President Leslie Harris. "By not expanding COPPA’s scope, the proposal avoids requiring all websites to try and age-verify their users."
CDT has concerns about the Commission’s proposal for obtaining parental consent by having website operators collect government-issued identification from minors’ parents to verify against a database. This method only proves that the operator has received someone’s ID; it cannot verify that the person on the ID is a parent of the minor.
"This method for verification could create serious chilling effects on parents’ willingness to consent to their child's use of a website and raises privacy concerns for parents without securing a greater level of certainty in parental consent," said Emma Llansó, CDT Policy Counsel.
