FTC Urged To Step Up Enforcement Of Children's Privacy Rules

Advocacy groups are urging the Federal Trade Commission to step up enforcement of a federal privacy law that prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting data from children younger than 13 without their parents' permission. In comments filed with the FTC Dec 11, 19 organizations say noncompliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act is “widespread.” “The most important thing that the FTC could do to protect children’s privacy is to more aggressively enforce its existing rules,” the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Citizen and other groups write. The organizations point specifically to the FTC's recent record-breaking $170 million children's privacy settlement with Google as evidence that enforcement efforts have lagged. “The FTC has long been aware that many channels on YouTube are directed to children,” the groups write. “Yet the FTC took no action until earlier this year.”