On April 22, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission published in the Federal Register the amendments to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule it announced on January 16, 2025.
The amendments become effective on June 21, 2025. Website and online operators have until April 22, 2026 to comply with the amendments whereas "safe harbor" programs have until October 22, 2025 to comply with provisions applicable to them.
As reported in our prior post, the amendments impose a variety of new requirements on operators of websites and online services that collect personal information from children under 13, such as: (1) separate requirements to obtain consent for disclosures of personal information that are not integral to the website or online service; (2) a requirement to disclose the specific purposes for which an operator is relying on the "support for internal operations" exception to the rule's parental consent requirement; and (3) a requirement to publish a data retention schedule for children's data in the operator's privacy policy.
The amendments were adopted with unanimous support in the waning days of the Biden administration in spite of objections raised by then-Commissioner (now Chairman) Andrew Ferguson to several provisions. Publication in the Federal Register was delayed by an executive order issued by President Trump on January 20, 2025 that directed agency heads to review and reconsider unpublished pending rules. Notwithstanding the concerns raised by then-Commissioner Ferguson, the rule was published on April 22.
The rule's adoption and ultimate publication reflects the strong support for children's privacy at the FTC under both the Biden and Trump administrations. That support is shared at the state level, where attorneys general can not only enforce COPPA and state unfair and deceptive acts and practices laws to protect the privacy of children under 13, but also authority under rapidly proliferating statutes designed to address the privacy and safety of individuals under 18.
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