COPPA

COPPA is an acronym that stands for "Children's Online Privacy Protection Act," which is a law that makes it illegal for online services to use information collected from children under 13 without consent from a guardian or parent. The act was passed in 1998 and made effective on April 21st, 2000.

The COPPA act was introduced in the House of Representatives by Richard Bryan, a Democrat from Nevada, in response to concerns about online data collection practices regarding children. As Internet usage and the methods of data collection have changed in the 2000s and 2010s, various revisions have been made to the act to provide more protection and clarity about what it means to collect data from kids.

The COPPA act is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is an independent agency of the U.S. government. The FTC has had to enforce the law many times with websites that did not comply with COPPA, including Lisa Frank and Girls' Life, and social sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. In response to COPPA, many websites ban users younger than 13 to avoid the legal ramifications of allowing users protected under the act.