FTC Opens Comment for Potential COPPA Changes; Sets Oct. 7 Workshop
The FTC requests comment on 2013 amendments to the children’s online privacy protection rule and whether additional changes are needed, the agency announced Wednesday. The comment period will be open for 90 days after Federal Register publication. A workshop is…
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scheduled for Oct. 7. “In light of rapid technological changes that impact the online children’s marketplace, we must ensure COPPA remains effective,” Chairman Joe Simons said of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The agency included specific questions. It wants to know if the rule affected “availability of websites or online services directed to children” and if it considers the right factors for determining if websites are directed at children. It asks about implications “for COPPA enforcement raised by technologies such as interactive television, interactive gaming, or other similar interactive media”; if the commission should consider exceptions to parental consent for educational purposes; and if the rule should be modified to “encourage general audience platforms to identify and police child-directed content uploaded by third parties.” This appears to be a move by the Trump FTC to help Google and “other child-directed digital marketers escape responsibility" for big data and manipulative marketing practices, said Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester. “I am worried that this commission is more concerned about the profits of big platforms than the privacy of the public, especially America’s youth.”