Digital Smarts - Slow Progress on Update to COPPA

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun the glacially slow process of considering updates to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The last time COPPA was amended was in 2013, when the FTC updated the definition of personal information to incorporate geolocation information along with photos, videos and audio files that contain a child's image or voice. Critics say one model the federal government should be looking at is the California Consumer Privacy Act. The California law not only expands privacy protections to minors under the age of 13 but also creates additional protections for children aged 13 through 16, who must affirmatively consent rather than opt out of the sale of their personal information. Other models include Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which extended its privacy protections for children to the age of 16, and the United Kingdom, which required its Information Commissioner's Office to create an "age-appropriate design code," which would have applications to youth up to the age of 18."