US regulators propose new online privacy safeguards for children
The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday proposed sweeping changes to strengthen the key federal rule that has protected children’s privacy online, in one of the U.S. government’s most significant efforts to strengthen consumer privacy online in more than a decade.
The changes are intended to strengthen the rules underlying the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. Regulators say these measures would “shift” the burden of online safety from parents to apps and other digital services, while limiting how platforms can use and monetize children’s data.
The proposed changes would, among other things, require certain online services to disable targeted advertising to children under 13 by default. They would ban online services from using personal data such as a child’s mobile phone number to entice young people to stay longer on their platforms. This means that online services would no longer be able to use personal data to bombard young children with push notifications.
The proposed updates would also strengthen security requirements for online services that collect data from children and limit the time for which online services can retain that information. And they would limit the collection of student data by learning apps and other education technology providers, only allowing schools to collect children’s personal data for educational purposes and not for commercial purposes.
“Children should be able to play and learn online without being endlessly tracked by companies looking to hoard and monetize their personal information,” Lina M. Khan, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, said in a statement Wednesday. “By requiring companies to better protect children’s data, our proposal imposes positive obligations on service providers and prohibits them from outsourcing their responsibilities to parents.”
It is not yet known how online services will comply with such proposed changes. The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed changes to the Children’s Privacy Rule. The committee will then vote on it.