Proposed Rulemaking to COPPA
**Attorney Advertising: Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes**

“On December 20, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA”) to place new restrictions on the use and disclosure of children’s personal information, attempting to shift the burden from parents to providers to help make digital services safe and secure for children.

Proposed modifications to the rule include:

Requiring separate opt-in for targeted advertising: A separate verifiable parental opt-in consent to disclose information to third parties would be required, with very narrow exceptions.

Prohibition against conditioning a child’s participation on collection of personal information: Reinforcement of the prohibition on conditioning participation in an activity on the collection of personal data, serving as an outright ban on collecting more personal information than is reasonably necessary for the child to participate.

Limiting push notifications to keep children online longer: Notice and consent would be required for the use of “engagement enhancing techniques,” including push notifications.
Changes related to Ed Tech: Using the personal information of students for commercial purposes would be barred.

Increasing accountability for Safe Harbor programs: COPPA Safe Harbor programs would be required to publicly disclose its membership list and report additional information to the FTC.

Strengthen data security requirements: Operators would be mandated to establish, implement, and maintain a written children’s personal information security program.

Limits on data retention: Operators would be prohibited from using retained information for any secondary purpose and information would be retained only for as long as necessary to fulfill the specific purpose it was collected for.

The COPPA rule has not been updated since 2012, and the FTC has already received over 176,000 comments in response to its call to comment on updating the COPPA rule. The FTC has called for additional input on various topics still under consideration. After Notice is published in the Federal Register, the public will have sixty (60) days to comment.”

At The Beckage Firm, we have a group of seasoned attorneys that are highly experienced with COPPA and other privacy laws relating to the collection of information of children. Protecting children online is a crucial step in compliance. We help businesses remain compliant with current and future rules and regulations relating to securing the personal information of children online.