The Deal With COPPA Regulations

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Hello. As a person who is interested in producing his own animated cartoons and comics and showcasing and monetizing them online I am a little concerned about this.

COPPA, or the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, is a federal law that is regulated and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The reason that COPPA is such a big deal now is because a lot of sites were collecting personal info on children under 13 without parental consent and knowledge.

The COPPA Rule stipulates that "COPPA imposes turn requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age and on operators of other websites are online services that they're collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age," according to the FTC's official website.

The FTC is imposing COPPA regulations on certain websites - video-sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, social media sites, artist/writer community sites like Deviantart, etc.

They are targeting user-created content on certain sites and creators on certain sites are being forced to comply with COPPA regulations by outright indicating whether or not their material is for kids or not.

Why must they do this if stuff is labelled "age-restricted" or labelled as having "mature content" on certain sites? Is it because a lot of stuff on certain sites isn't labelled properly? Stuff that should be labelled as "age-restricted" or having "mature content" but isn't?

If user-created content on websites was so important to the FTC why are they waiting till now to enforce and impose COPPA regulations on certain sites? Why are they waiting till now to take action?

I'm just curious about this.

Since I intend on producing kid-friendly/family-friendly/all-age material and showcasing and monetizing it online I don't think COPPA is something I need to be overtly concerned about. I think it's a bit annoying I will have to personally provide disclaimers about whom my material is intended for but I don't want to get in any legal trouble.

Please help. Thank you.

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I know RebelofNJ shared a few things regarding COPPA in another thread I posted.

Does anyone else have anything to say about COPPA?

The COPPA law was established back in 1998. Why is the FTC waiting till now to regulate and enforce it? Why are they waiting till now to impose COPPA regulations on certain websites? Why wasn't this done years ago?

What stopped the FTC from doing all this?

1 Reply

@JGoldman10,

"Reached by The Verge, Google confirmed that this new [child friendly labeling] system was the result of a landmark $170 million settlement YouTube reached with the Federal Trade Commission in September for allegedly violating children’s privacy. It’s the largest fine ever collected under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which forbids collecting data from children under the age of 13 without explicit consent from their parents.
In this case, the ruling means YouTube can’t employ its powerful ad-targeting system on anyone who might be under the age of 13 — a dire problem for a platform with so many young users."

"If the FTC does take action against channel owners, it’s likely to be both selective and heavy-handed. The FTC is a small agency and doesn’t employ nearly enough staffers to tackle every COPPA failure that gets uploaded to YouTube. (Chairman Joe Simons has repeatedly called for more money to address the staff shortage.) With so much content uploaded to YouTube every day, the FTC is likely to focus on high-profile cases against popular channels."
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20963459/youtube-google-coppa-ftc-fine-settlement-youtubers-new-rules

Honestly, you would be fine as your channel would be considered too small to get the noticed by the FTC. By the time your channel is big enough, you should be aware what content would be in violation.

YouTube and the FTC can barely stop people from breaking copyright law and posting copyrighted material on a daily basis.

2 Replies

@Rebelofnj,

I assume the same could be said about any video-sharing sites, social media platforms, other community sites, etc., in which COPPA regulations are involved.

I do intend on showcasing my stuff on YouTube and other video-sharing sites, like Dailymotion and Metacafe, social media sites, artist/writer community sites, etc. I want to showcase my stuff on as many online platforms as I can.

I am going to do research on all the sites that have been impacted by COPPA.

0 Replies

Vimeo IS another video-sharing site that's been impacted by COPPA.

A quick Google or Bing search will confirm this.

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@JGoldman10,

Can you share any links? I can't find any legitimate sources that say Vimeo is says it is making the same moves as YouTube.

1) unlike YouTube, Vimeo does not have a large child audience. Many of its videos are mainly for older audiences.

2) as discussed at length in the article I linked before, YouTube was sued and was ordered by the FTC to implement changes in accordance to COPPA. Vimeo is not being sued.

Based on what I can find, Vimeo is already following COPPA guidelines and will not implement changes like YouTube.
Apparently, only 0.1% of Vimeo visitors are under the age of 13 (COPPA only protects children under the age of 13), so Vimeo is not going to make any site changes just for 0.1% of their audience.
http://socialmediascholar.com/vimeo-what-is-it-how-does-it-work-and-how-can-businesses-use-it-in-marketing/

You are making a big fuss over this.

1 Reply

@Rebelofnj,

I don't know how to cut and paste text on my smartphone. I don't how to index any URLs without involving a proxy server on my smartphone.

I have a Boost Mobile Android phone.

1 Reply

@JGoldman10,

JGoldman10 wrote:

I don't know how to cut and paste text on my smartphone. I don't how to index any URLs without involving a proxy server on my smartphone.

I have a Boost Mobile Android phone.

Nevermind I just figured this out.

0 Replies

Deviantart won't let any minors under 13 register to join their site because of COPPA regulations.

1 Reply

@JGoldman10,

Many websites in general don't let minors under 13 years old create accounts: Yahoo Answers, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Xbox Live, this very website.

It has been that way for years.

3 Replies

@Rebelofnj,

I know that.

1 Reply

@Rebelofnj,

I used to be a regular on the DC Comics Message Boards on DCComics.com when they were still up years ago. The mininum age to join the Boards was 13.

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@Rebelofnj,

I didn't even know what COPPA was until I discovered this video:

and until I watched Ixapter's latest animated video on YouTube to date.

0 Replies

@JGoldman10,

DC created a new message board https://community.dcuniverse.com as part of its DC Universe streaming service launch in 2018.

According to their privacy policy:
"If the person indicates that he or she is under 13 years old, as permitted by law we will (i) collect no or limited personal information (e.g. persistent identifier and/or email address only) from that individual, (ii) inform the child that a parent's verifiable consent is required, and/or (iii) collect the email address of the user's parent in addition to the user's email address."

It continues on in further detail

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@JGoldman10,

If you knew that, then why single out Deviantart when every major site does it?

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I am curious. Why can't I find an official list of all COPPA-compliant websites anywhere online? The FTC ought to have such a list somewhere on their website.

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Why were certain websites collecting info from children under 13 without their parents' consent and knowledge in the first place? What were they gaining by doing that?

1 Reply

@JGoldman10,

Identity theft. Prurient interest. Who the hell knows - or cares?

As for why there's no list of COPPA-compliant websites, that "list" is likely millions (if not billions) of websites and it could very well change by the hour. Keeping such a list would crash pretty much any website and be of no specific interest to anyone but (apparently) you. Checks for compliance are far more likely to be done on a case by case basis, also probably started via something a bot finds.

Want to see COPPA-compliant websites? Then go here: https://www.quora.com/What-are-good-examples-of-COPPA-compliant-web-sites

1 Reply

@jespah,

Thank you. I saw that link already.

0 Replies

Why are there still a lot of videos on YouTube, at least, that aren't age-restricted but should be, and why aren't they COPPA-compliant?

Do the people who upload these videos not care about getting in any kind of trouble?

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The Deal With COPPA Regulations

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