User:Dingodoom/COPPA

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Background[edit]

In the 1990s, electronic commerce was on its rise of popularity, but various concerns were expressed about the data collection practices and the impact of Internet commerce on user privacy — especially children under 13, because very few websites had their own privacy policies. The Center for Media Education petitioned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the data collection and use practices of the KidsCom website, and take legal action since the data practices violated Section 5 of FTC Act concerning "unfair/deceptive practices." With the passing of the Drivers Privacy Protection Act in 1997, new precedents had been set in regards to the ability for congress to regulate information held by state agencies.  After the FTC completed its investigation, it issued the "KidsCom Letter" the report stated that the data collection and use practices were indeed subject to legal action. This resulted in the need to inform parents about the risks of children's online privacy, as well as to parental consent necessity. This ultimately resulted in the drafting of COPPA.

The new millennium ushered in an era of regulation that many were simply unaware of. The early years of the transition were fraught with confusion and a lot of animosity. One of the main concerns of the time was the eventual accessibility of child-based websites at the fear many were unwilling to change their business practices.[10] Many were left with a series of loose guidelines that determined what was correct.[11] The simplification of COPPA provided by the FTC was met with a follow-up of demands to law enforcement that the: "... Commission should continue law enforcement efforts by targeting significant violations and seeking increasingly larger civil penalties, when appropriate, to deter unlawful conduct".[12] A mandatory review of the COPPA regulations were conducted in 2005 (resulting with no changes to the original guidelines), found that their were no adverse affects to the online landscape.

Violations[edit]

According to the FTC, courts may fine violators of COPPA up to $43,280 in civil penalties for each violation. The FTC has brought a number of actions against website operators for failing to comply with COPPA requirements, including actions against Google, TikTok, Girls' Life, American Pop Corn Company, Lisa Frank, Inc., Mrs. Fields Cookies, and The Hershey Company. On September 4, 2019, the FTC issued a fine of $170 million to YouTube for COPPA violations, including tracking viewing history of minors in order to facilitate targeted advertising. Many notable social media platforms were subjected to this attack from the FTC, especially groups like Facebook where the platform had users actively ignoring these guidelines since it's inception due to ease-of-access and universial need for children to sign up to use third-party content. As a result, YouTube announced that as part of the settlement, in 2020 it would require channel operators to mark videos that are "child-oriented" as such, and would use machine learning to automatically mark those as clearly "child-oriented" if not marked already. In the settlement terms, channel operators that failed to mark videos as "child-oriented" could be fined by the FTC for up to $42,530 per video, which has raised criticism towards the settlement terms. The decision came in terms that, despite good faith, created many issues among the content creators on the site. User's such as Ryan's World, Philip DeFranco and TheOdd1sOut with vastly different content found themselves in the hot seat for their appealing content for children. The following guidelines were implemented on the basis set by the following rules:

The Rule sets out additional factors the FTC will consider in determining whether your content is child-directed:

• the subject matter,
• visual content,
• the use of animated characters or child-oriented activities and incentives,
• the kind of music or other audio content,
• the age of models,
• the presence of child celebrities or celebrities who appeal to children,
• language or other characteristics of the site,
• whether advertising that promotes or appears on the site is directed to children, and
• competent and reliable empirical evidence about the age of the audience.

International scope[edit]

The FTC has asserted that COPPA applies to any online service that is directed to U.S. users or knowingly collects information from children in the U.S., regardless of its country of origin. Referring to their official website, the following embodies such views:

The FTC’s Office of International Affairs directs the agency’s international activities for competition and consumer protection, which include:

• strengthening relationships with foreign competition and consumer protection agencies
• developing formal and informal arrangements and agreements with competition and consumer protection agencies around the world
• engaging in cooperative dialogues and submitting reports at international forums for competition and consumer protection
• helping agencies around the world develop and enhance their own competition and consumer protection programs
• sharing information with foreign law enforcement authorities through the U.S. Safe Web Act
• maintaining a robust International Fellows Program

However, the FTC rarely performs enforcement actions against foreign companies, and faces a number of practical challenges in doing so. The general assumption is that, despite the interconnected world of internet services, jurisdiction only applies to domestic operation. Nevertheless, it has successfully enforced COPPA against at least one foreign company with a significant US userbase, securing a $5.7 million dollar settlement against the Chinese company ByteDance over their TikTok app.

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All edits below are original from sandbox draft

Background

In the 1990s, electronic commerce was on its rise of popularity, but various concerns were expressed about the data collection practices and the impact of Internet commerce on user privacy — especially children under 13, because very few websites had their own privacy policies. The Center for Media Education petitioned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the data collection and use practices of the KidsCom website. With the passing of the Drivers Privacy Protection Act in 1997, new precedents had been set in regards to the ability for congress to regulate information held by state agencies. This allowed the FTC to take legal action since the data practices violated Section 5 of FTC Act concerning "unfair/deceptive practices." After the FTC completed its investigation, it issued the "KidsCom Letter" the report stated that the data collection and use practices were indeed subject to legal action. This resulted in the need to inform parents about the risks of children's online privacy, as well as to parental consent necessity. This ultimately resulted in the drafting of COPPA

The new millennium ushered in ana era of regulation that many were simply unaware of. The early years of the transition were fraught with confusion and a lot of animosity. One of the main concerns of the time was the eventual accessibility of child-based websites at the fear many were unwilling to change their business practices. Many were left with a series of loose guidelines that determined what was correct. The simplification of COPPA provided by the FTC was met with a follow-up of demands to law enforcement that the: "... Commission should continue law enforcement efforts by targeting significant violations and seeking increasingly larger civil penalties, when appropriate, to deter unlawful conduct". A mandatory review of the COPPA regulations were conducted in 2005 (resulting with no changes to the original guidelines), found that their were no adverse affects to the online landscape.

International scope

The FTC has asserted that COPPA applies to any online service that is directed to U.S. users or knowingly collects information from children in the U.S., regardless of its country of origin. Referring to their official website, the following embodies such views:

The FTC’s Office of International Affairs directs the agency’s international activities for competition and consumer protection, which include:

• strengthening relationships with foreign competition and consumer protection agencies
• developing formal and informal arrangements and agreements with competition and consumer protection agencies around the world
• engaging in cooperative dialogues and submitting reports at international forums for competition and consumer protection
• helping agencies around the world develop and enhance their own competition and consumer protection programs
• sharing information with foreign law enforcement authorities through the U.S. Safe Web Act
• maintaining a robust International Fellows Program

YouTube Kids logo after the 2019 $170M settlement

Portrait of Lina Khan as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission under President Biden.

The FTC rarely performs enforcement actions against foreign companies, and faces a number of practical challenges in doing so. The general assumption is that, despite the interconnected world of internet services, jurisdiction only applies to domestic operation. Nevertheless, it has successfully enforced COPPA against at least one foreign company with a significant US userbase, securing a $5.7 million dollar settlement against the Chinese company ByteDance over their TikTok app.

Violations

According to the FTC courts may fine violators of COPPA up to $43,280 in civil penalties for each violation. The FTC has brought a number of actions against website operators for failing to comply with COPPA requirements, including actions against Google, TikTok, Girls' Life, American Pop Corn Company, Lisa Frank, Inc., Mrs. Fields Cookies, and The Hershey Company.

In February 2004, UMG Recordings, Inc. was fined US$400,000 for COPPA violations in connection with a web site that promoted the then 13-year-old rapper Lil' Romeo and hosted child-oriented games and activities, and Bonzi Software, which offered downloads of an animated figure "BonziBuddy" that provided shopping advice, jokes, and trivia was fined $75,000 for COPPA violations. Similarly, the owners of the Xanga website were fined US$1,000,000 in 2006 for COPPA violations of repeatedly allowing children under 13 to sign up for the service without getting their parent's consent.

In 2016, the mobile advertising network inMobi was fined US$950,000 for tracking the geo-location of all users (including those under 13) without their knowledge. The advertising software continuously tracked user location despite privacy preferences on the mobile device. Other websites that were directed towards children and fined due to COPPA include Imbee (2008), Kidswirl (2011) and Skid-e-Kids (2011).

In February 2019, the FTC issued a fine of $5.7 million to ByteDance for failing to comply with COPPA with their TikTok app. ByteDance agreed to pay the largest COPPA fine since the bill's enactment and to add a kids-only mode to the TikTok app.

Three dating apps by Wildec were pulled by Apple and Google from their respective app stores, after the FTC determined that the dating apps allowed users under 13 to register, that Wildec knew there were significant numbers of minor users, and that this allowed inappropriate contact with minors.

On September 4, 2019, the FTC issued a fine of $170 million to YouTube for COPPA violations, including tracking viewing history of minors in order to facilitate targeted advertising. Many notable social media platforms were subjected to this attack from the FTC, espeically groups like Facebook where the platform had users actively ignoring these guidelines since it's inception due to ease-of-access and universial need for children to sign up to use 3rd Party content. . As a result, YouTube announced that as part of the settlement, in 2020 it would require channel operators to mark videos that are "child-oriented" as such, and would use machine learning to automatically mark those as clearly "child-oriented" if not marked already. The decision came in terms that, despite good faith, created many issues among the content creators on the site. User's such as Ryan's World, Philip DeFranco and TheOdd1sOut with vastly different content found themselves in the hot seat for their appealing content for children. The following guidelines were implemented on the basis set by the following rules:

The Rule sets out additional factors the FTC will consider in determining whether your content is child-directed:

• the subject matter,
• visual content,
• the use of animated characters or child-oriented activities and incentives,
• the kind of music or other audio content,
• the age of models,
• the presence of child celebrities or celebrities who appeal to children,
• language or other characteristics of the site,
• whether advertising that promotes or appears on the site is directed to children, and
• competent and reliable empirical evidence about the age of the audience.