Children Online Privacy Laws – Parental Consent, Data Collection, and Platform Duties

Children’s online privacy in the United States is governed prominently by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and its implementing COPPA Rule. COPPA focuses on covered websites and online services that collect personal information from children under 13. The FTC substantially amended the Rule in 2025, and most amended requirements reached their compliance date on April 22, 2026.

Which Services Does COPPA Cover?

COPPA can apply to commercial websites and online services directed to children under 13 that collect, use, or disclose children’s personal information. It can also apply when an operator has actual knowledge that it collects personal information from a child under 13. Online services include mobile apps and connected devices, not only traditional websites.

The FTC’s current COPPA compliance guidance should be treated as a starting point for understanding federal requirements.

Parental Consent Comes Before Covered Collection

Covered operators generally must provide required notice and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children, subject to defined exceptions.

A child may move freely between games, apps, videos, and unrelated Pennsylvania news websites, which makes reliable internal age and audience analysis important. A service should determine whether it is child-directed and what information it collects rather than assuming a general-audience label settles the issue.

COPPA Area	Core Question	Compliance Focus
Audience	Is the service child-directed?	Coverage analysis
Collection	What child data is gathered?	Notice and consent
Sharing	Who receives the information?	Third-party controls
Retention	How long is data kept?	Purpose-based limits

The 2025 Amendments Strengthened Key Duties

The amended Rule became effective June 23, 2025, with April 22, 2026 as the general compliance date for most amendments. Among other changes, the FTC strengthened requirements concerning third-party disclosures, retention, security, and categories of personal information.

The revised framework includes separate verifiable parental consent for certain disclosures to third parties unless the disclosure is integral to the service. Operators therefore need to understand advertising and vendor relationships rather than treating all outside processing alike.

When reviewing broad Tennessee local media, the distinction may seem technical, but for a child-directed platform it can directly affect how advertising technology is configured.

Data Minimization and Retention Matter

The amended Rule requires covered operators to avoid keeping children’s personal information indefinitely. Information should be retained only as long as reasonably necessary for the specific purpose for which it was collected.

That makes internal deletion schedules important. Developers should also examine backups, analytics systems, advertising partners, and other storage locations.

Even routine browsing through Indiana content catalogs demonstrates how digital services connect across many systems. For children’s information, operators need tighter knowledge of exactly where protected data travels.

Where COPPA Compliance Commonly Breaks Down

A frequent mistake is assuming that a statement such as “users must be 13” automatically removes COPPA concerns. Actual audience characteristics, service design, and knowledge about users can matter.

Another weak point is vendor management. A platform may build careful parental-consent screens while allowing advertising or analytics code to collect information independently. Consent records, privacy notices, vendor contracts, technical settings, deletion systems, and security practices need to operate together.

When Should Legal Help Be Considered?

Operators should consider qualified privacy counsel when launching child-directed services, adding targeted advertising, changing age-screening methods, integrating new SDKs, or expanding the categories of children’s information collected.

Legal review is also appropriate after a privacy incident, FTC inquiry, parental complaint, or uncertainty over whether an exception permits collection without prior parental consent. COPPA violations can carry significant enforcement consequences, so uncertain coverage questions should not be resolved through guesswork.

Frequently Asked Questions

What age does COPPA protect?

COPPA’s federal framework focuses on children under 13. Other laws, platform policies, and state privacy statutes may establish protections affecting teenagers as well, so COPPA is not necessarily the only rule relevant to younger users.

Can children’s information be used for targeted advertising?

Covered operators must account for the amended COPPA Rule’s restrictions and parental-consent requirements concerning disclosure to third parties. The specific arrangement, purpose, and recipient must be evaluated rather than assuming ordinary advertising practices are permitted.

Can a parent ask for a child’s data to be deleted?

COPPA gives parents rights concerning information collected from their children, including mechanisms relating to review and deletion. Operators must maintain processes capable of responding to the rights applicable under the Rule.

Treat Children’s Data as a Special Compliance Category

A child-focused product should not use an adult privacy program with a few extra sentences added. Audience analysis, parental notices, consent, vendor controls, retention, and security need to be designed around children’s information from the start.

The amended COPPA requirements are already in their compliance period, making current operational practices—not future plans—the central issue.

This article provides general legal information and is not a substitute for advice from a qualified attorney regarding a specific situation.