COPPA: What It Means & Why Your Parent Says Yes
Learn why websites need your parent's permission to collect your information online—and how COPPA keeps you safe.
# COPPA: What It Means and Why Your Parent Has to Say Yes
What Is COPPA?
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a United States federal law that applies to the online collection of personal information from children under 13 years of age. Think of COPPA as a safety rule for the internet—like a lifeguard watching over kids at a pool!
The primary goal of COPPA is to place parents in control over what information is collected from their young children online. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) gives parents control over what information websites can collect from their kids.
When you use websites, apps, or online games, they sometimes ask for information about you. This might be your name, email address, location, or what you like. COPPA says that before websites can collect this information from kids under 13, they must ask your parent or guardian for permission first.
Why Do Websites Need Permission?
COPPA was passed to strengthen the privacy law and address the rapid growth of online marketing techniques in the 1990s that were targeting children. Various websites were collecting personal data from children without parents' actual knowledge or consent.
Companies used to collect information from kids without telling their parents. They would use this information to send ads, track what kids liked, or sell the information to other companies. COPPA changed that to keep kids safer online.
What Information Does COPPA Protect?
Personal information that falls within COPPA compliance requirements includes: children's names, nicknames, email addresses, telephone numbers, home addresses, and other geo-location information, social security numbers, photos, video, and audio files of the child, any persistent identifier or tracker that can be used to recognize an individual's use over time and/or across different websites, as well as any information that enables physical or online communication or contact with a specific individual.
Basically, anything that could identify you or let someone contact you is protected by COPPA.