Uphold Children’s Data Privacy With Our COPPA Compliance Checklist

If you are on the verge of launching a new app or service that involves the collection of children’s data, you might have missed one essential consideration: securing your COPPA compliance. If so, we recommend you immediately stop collecting and sharing children's data. Service providers not following the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rules will face major monetary and legal repercussions.

We are here to give you peace of mind by ensuring your app or website complies with child-related safety protocols. We will show you how to edit your data collection policy and behaviors and ensure you have a channel for parental consent.

To avoid facing potential legal repercussions from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  please use our COPPA compliance checklist below, which will explain in detail how your product can comply with the rules and protect children’s right to privacy.

What is COPPA Compliance?

In 1998, the United States Congress passed COPPA, a federal law mandating how websites and apps can gather, implement, and share sensitive data from children under 13. Such resources will also need parental consent to collect data from children.

Here are the most important factors to consider:

1. Children’s Privacy: COPPA’s first and most vital objective is to secure children’s online privacy and inform parents how their children’s data is gathered and used.
2. Attaining Consent: A parent must provide confirmed consent before any information can be collected from their child. This is generally attained via form signing or email confirmation.
3. FTC Protection: Please keep in mind that COPPA is enforced by the FTC, which will penalize service providers for failing to comply.

How to Know If You Need to Comply With COPPA

Simply put, if your website or app gathers data from children below the age of 13, you will be subject to COPPA. This condition has more nuance, so let us break it down.

You will be subject to COPPA if:

1. Children are part of your target audience, or your service may be used by children under 13.
2. Any third parties you are associated with may collect data from children under 13.
3. You target an adult demographic, but your services may encounter children under 13 as customers.
4. Any advertising or marketing resources or plug-ins you run in your service may target children under 13.

What Counts as Personal Information?

Companies often fail to understand what constitutes personal information and are unwittingly penalized for it. We want you to fully appreciate which details you might gather that count as personal information.

Below is a list of every detail the FTC counts as personal information:

• Names, both first and last.
• Physical addresses, including home location and street and city or town names.
• Usernames and unique identifiers that children may use when signing up for your or other services.
• Telephone or mobile device numbers
• Social Security numbers
• Photographs and audio or video files containing a child’s visual appearance or voice.
• Geolocation data that would allow one to locate a child’s location or that which directly provides a child’s physical location, like their residence, town, or city.
• Information used in combination with the above related to a child or their parents.

COPPA Compliance Checklist

Do not worry if you are still unsure how to comply with COPPA. We have created a checklist based on the FTA’s official guidelines to help you quickly and easily revise your service policy and operations.

This checklist will ensure that your services protect children and provide complete transparency and agency for their parents.