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House lawmakers introduce bill to update children's online privacy law:
A pair of House lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill Thursday to update a decades-old law designed to protect children's online privacy. The bill comes amid growing concern that children are encountering increasingly sophisticated threats online.
The Preventing Real Online Threats Endangering Children Today Act (PDF), introduced by Republican Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan and Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, aims to strengthen the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) to address the ever-evolving digital landscape, the lawmakers said.
"Children today are more connected online and face dangers that we could not have imagined years ago," Walberg said in a statement. "While advancements in technology allows for many benefits, it also poses a risk for our kids."
The legislation would allow parents to force companies to delete any private information they've collected about their children. It would also raise the raise the age of parental consent protections from the current 13 years of age to 16.
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Sunday January 12 2020, @05:29AM
Consider alternatively.
Sites like Faceplant, TikTok, online forums, just about everywhere say "You're not welcome to use this site if you're under 13 years of age, unless you have a parent sign and return this form." They do actively remove accounts of such underaged people -- and this law is the reason why. It's everywhere.
What do you suppose will happen if this law is raised to 16 years? Is Faceplant going to chop off all their 13-15 users? Probably not. Are forums going to remove every -16 user? Probably. (Except Reddit?)
Having that one change will really cause online services to rethink their privacy as a whole, for a whole lot more people.