On October 22, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or the “Commission”) announced it will push back the deadline for comments on potential updates to its implementation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (together with its implementing regulations, COPPA) by 45 days. The Commission explained that stakeholders requested an extension in light of the FTC’s recent enforcement action against YouTube and its parent Google for alleged COPPA violations, as well as the FTC’s public workshop on COPPA in early October. Comments will now be due December 9, 2019, instead of October 23, 2019.
The Commission began seeking public comments in July to inform potential revisions to COPPA. The agency explained that it is reviewing COPPA in light of changes in technology since the regulations were last updated in 2013. The Commission is requesting comments on several issues, including:
- How COPPA has impacted the availability of child-directed online services.
- Factors that can be used to determine whether an online service is child directed.
- Strategies to encourage general audience platforms to identify and police content directed to children uploaded by third parties.
Since its initial request, the Commission has received over 1,400 comments regarding potential COPPA updates.
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