FTC Reviewing COPPA Rules

The FTC is seeking comment on whether changes should be made to rules imposing certain requirements on Web sites directed at children, including a mandate that they obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under the age of 13.

In a Federal Register notice Monday, the FTC said the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which went into effect in 2000, requires the agency to review the rules required by the law every five years. While the agency declined to make changes in 2005 when it first reviewed the rules for Web sites aimed at children under 13, the FTC said it now "believes that changes to the online environment over the past five years, including but not limited to children's increasing use of mobile technology to access the Internet, warrant reexamining the rule at this time."

In addition to parental consent, the current FTC rules imposed under COPPA also require Web sites aimed at children under 13 to secure the information they collect from children and bars them from requiring children to provide more information than is "reasonably necessary to participate" in activities provided on the site.

In its request for comments, which are due by June 30, the FTC is asking for input on such issues as whether the definition of "Internet" should be expanded to include mobile communications, interactive television and gaming and other activities and whether the defition of "personal information" also should be expanded to include persistent IP addresses, mobile geolocation data or information used to help target ads at specific Internet users. Other issues, the FTC is seeking comment on include whether changes should be made to the requirements that information be kept secure and private; the requirement that allows parents to review or delete personal information about their children; and on the provision barring the linking of participation in activities on a children's Web site to the collection of personal information.