After a process that began back in 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) unanimously approved a revised Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule or Rule) on January 16, 2025. The Rule was based on comments responding to the FTC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued January 11, 2024. This is the first revision to the COPPA Rule since 2013.
The COPPA Rule implements the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and imposes certain requirements on businesses (referred to as “operators”) regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of children’s personal information. While the changes to the Rule are not as far-reaching as they might have been (some proposed provisions in the January 2024 NPRM, including changes related to edtech, did not make it into the final version of the Rule), the modifications to the Rule impose a number of important new requirements on operators that will require action. Read more here.