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The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA): What Parents Should Know

Congress and the FTC have taken special steps to assure that children under 13 years of age don’t share their personal information on the Internet without the express approval of their parents. Congress passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in 1998 and the FTC wrote a rule implementing the law, which was revised in 2012. The FTC has taken law enforcement actions against companies that failed to comply with the provisions of the law.