Children's Privacy

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While students are about to embark on their holiday break, there is no such luck for educational technology (“EdTech”) providers. Privacy, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence compliance obligations have proliferated over the past year, with no signs of slowing down. While it is hard to keep track of the numerous regulations and proposals on the state and federal level, below, I have highlighted a few issues for EdTech providers to monitor in the coming year.Continue Reading No Holiday Break for EdTech Compliance

As laid out in our earlier blogpost, part of Ropes & Gray’s Data, Privacy & Cybersecurity Group’s “12 Days of Data” series, one thing to look out for in 2024 is an update from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on its Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule) review. Well, we did not have to wait until 2024. On December 20, 2023, the FTC announced proposed changes to the COPPA Rule.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is the culmination of a process that began on July 25, 2019, when the FTC first solicited comments on the COPPA rule promulgated in 2013. The NPRM is seeking comments on the proposed changes as well as some related questions within 60 days of publication in the Federal Register (the deadline will likely fall in late February).Continue Reading FTC Proposes Amendments to the COPPA Rule as Part of Continued Attention to Children’s Privacy

Last holiday season, we were looking under the tree to see if President Biden and the U.S. Congress would leave the gift of a new national children’s online privacy and safety law—and whether it would turn out to be a welcome surprise or a lump of coal. It was widely reported that a group of senators were pushing to include the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA 2.0”) and the Kids Online Safety Act (“KOSA”) in the fiscal year 2023 funding bill. However, once everything was unwrapped, the bills were pulled from the funding package.Continue Reading Naughty or Nice: Children’s Online Privacy and Safety Developments and Expectations

The debate concerning the UK’s controversial Online Safety Bill (OSB) has continued to rumble on in recent days, with the UK Government reportedly again being warned that there is a real risk that certain messaging apps could be withdrawn from the UK if compromises cannot be reached on a number of issues.  

The OSB, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords, aims to increase the responsibility of social media platforms for their users’ safety.  It is intended to protect both children and adults in various ways.  Continue Reading Controversy around the UK’s Online Safety Bill continues

In 2022, children’s online privacy and safety has been top of mind in many state legislatures and interest groups, and the California legislature successfully passed legislation focused on children’s privacy. California’s new bipartisan law (AB-2273), the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (“CAADCA”), which targets privacy and safety protections for children and teens on online platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 15, 2022, and goes into effect July 1, 2024.Continue Reading California’s New Children’s Privacy Law is Set to Come into Effect in 2024

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 shuttered daycare centers, shifted schools to virtual settings, and fueled the rapid growth of children’s applications and educational technology (“ed-tech”) to facilitate the shelter-in-place childcare and remote learning paradigms. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), as well as numerous state laws protect children’s and students’ privacy when using these platforms. In 2021, increased scrutiny of the data collection practices of these platforms has followed their rapid deployment, as new variants led to renewed restrictions on in-person education and childcare. That scrutiny is likely to continue in the new year, as the use of such platforms persists, even as the pandemic subsides. In this post, we survey the developments during 2021 and assess the future of child and student privacy in 2022.
Continue Reading Trends in Child and Student Privacy