The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a law designed to protect the online privacy of children under 13. The law came into force in April 2000 and is administered by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The COPPA was created to stop the rapid growth of online marketing techniques in the 1990s. With these techniques, children were targeted very specifically by means of misleading advertisements. Also, several websites collected data from children without parents knowing about it. The FTC stated that children should be protected, as research showed that children have no idea about the negative side of spreading your own information.
In short, COPPA states that:
- Websites must ask permission from parents of children under the age of 13 before data can be collected.
- The privacy policy must be transparent wherever data is collected.
- Parents’ consent must also be verifiable. The FTC states that to obtain permission, parents should call or email your agency. Credit card verification is also possible.
- Parents should always be able to access and view their children’s data.
- Parents should always be able to submit a request to have all of their child’s data deleted.
In concrete terms, it means that for you as a website owner or plugin user, you have to meet certain requirements. Within the Complianz plugin, we have provided the option to create a privacy policy for children. This is based on the information you enter in the wizard. This privacy policy explains the following:
- Objectives of storing personal data
- Way of discovering whether parents have given permission.
- In which situations parental consent is not required.
- With which parties data is shared.
- How is being responded to Do Not Track Signals?
- What cookies are used?
- What security measures have been and are being taken?
- Contact details including toll-free phone number.
