What is COPPA? Why Your Parent Has to Say Yes Online
Survey Cash Club Research Desk
May 26, 2026
COPPA is a law that protects kids online by making sure websites ask your parent before collecting your information.
# What is COPPA? Why Your Parent Has to Say Yes Online
What Does COPPA Mean?
COPPA stands for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a United States federal law. Think of it like a special rule book for the internet that protects kids like you!
COPPA gives parents control over what information websites can collect from their kids. It's kind of like a permission slip—just like you need your parent's permission to go on a field trip, websites need your parent's permission to collect your information.
Why Do Websites Need Your Parent's Permission?
Congress made this law because younger children are particularly vulnerable to overreaching by marketers and may not understand the safety and privacy issues created by the online collection of personal information.
Here's the simple version: When you sign up for a website or app, you might share things like your name, email, age, or what games you like. Companies could use that information to:
Send you ads for things you don't need
Share your info with other companies
Track what you do online
COPPA was passed to strengthen privacy law and address the rapid growth of online marketing techniques in the 1990s that were targeting children, with various websites collecting personal data from children without parents' actual knowledge or consent.
What Age Does COPPA Protect?
COPPA protects children under the age of 13. Once you turn 13, the law doesn't apply the same way anymore.
What Information Is Protected?
COPPA details what a website operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and what responsibilities an operator has to protect children's privacy and safety online.
The COPPA Rule requires businesses to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13. This means the website has to make sure it's really your parent saying "yes," not someone pretending to be your parent.
Operators are now allowed to use methods like knowledge-based authentication through dynamic, multiple-choice questions that are difficult for a child to answer, submission of government-issued photo identification, and text messaging coupled with additional steps to confirm that the consenting individual is the parent.
What Happens If Websites Break the Rules?
The FTC has taken law enforcement actions against companies that failed to comply with the provisions of the law. Companies can face serious penalties for breaking COPPA rules.
Recent Updates to COPPA
On June 23, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission's latest set of amendments to COPPA went into effect, marking the first time since 2013 that the seminal federal privacy law governing children's online privacy practices has been updated.
The COPPA amendments expand the definition of "personal information" to include biometric identifiers that can be used for the automated or semi-automated recognition of an individual (such as fingerprints, iris scans, voiceprints, genetic data, and more).
The Rule now requires operators to obtain separate and additional verifiable parental consent prior to disclosing a child's personal information to third parties like advertisers and data brokers.
What You Can Do
Remember these tips:
Always tell your parent before signing up for websites or apps
Don't share personal information without asking first
Be careful about what photos you post online
Ask your parent if you're not sure if a website is safe
