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with the UK Government reportedly again being warned that there is a real risk that certain messaging apps could be withdrawn from the UK if compromises cannot be reached on a number of issues.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