Social Media: Defending Children's Legal Rights to Privacy

What Parents Need to Know About Protecting Kid’s Privacy on Social Media

​We read about it in the news all the time: adults are tracked and their data is sold through social media channels. But what about the social media privacy of children? Well, we are here to report that there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that children, too, are tracked on social media and their information sold. The good news is that state and federal governments have begun to take a hard stance to protect children’s privacy. But, even as regulators crackdown on the exploitation of children and their data, it’s still up to parents to enforce their children’s legal privacy rights.

Here’s a fun fact: children have had digital privacy rights for 17 years now, courtesy of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA defines how websites and applications are allowed to collect data from users under the age of 13. The act was intended to give parents control of their children’s privacy by requiring parental consent to collect information on children. Unfortunately, loopholes have been exploited by social media and other online businesses: the rule specifically applies to websites, online services, and apps whose content or products are “directed to children under 13.” So, many businesses have ignored COPPA altogether, claiming that their content is not directed solely to young children.

However, recent enforcement and bad press have caused the online industry, including social media, to take COPPA more seriously. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces COPPA, clarified that the law also applies to businesses that collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under 13 and businesses that get information from another website or app directed to children. And the FTC has shown that it’s serious about enforcement. In 2019, the Chinese social media video company TikTok settled with the FTC for $5.7 million over allegations that it violated COPPA, and YouTube and its parent company Google paid a record $170 million for violating the children’s privacy law. Several U.S. Senators have also investigated Facebook’s collection of data on children and urged the FTC to investigate possible COPPA violations by Amazon with its new “Echo” for Kids device.

The new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is also having a beneficial effect, with its provision that children ages 13 to 16 have to opt-in before their data is collected. Many U.S. companies have revamped their nationwide privacy policies to align with the CCPA as it looks bad if they protect kids in California and not kids in other states. Other states are looking at following California’s lead, and Congress is also considering the Do Not Track Kids Act, which would extend COPPA to children up to 16 years old.

It’s great that children’s privacy is protected by law, but parents still have to take action to help ensure social media sites and apps don’t get around them. Here are four things parents can do:

1. Make sure kids don’t lie about their age when setting up social accounts. Some sites don’t allow members under 13, but even for teens 16 and under, the CCPA protections won’t apply if they don’t give their real age.
2. Consider parental controls to limit young children to kid-appropriate sites and apps, where their privacy is protected and where they’re less likely to be exposed to inappropriate content and people.
3. For kids age 13 and up, sit them down and go through the privacy settings on their social media networks to make sure they’re protected and understand how to use them.
4. Talk with 13- to 16-year-olds about what it means to opt-in to data collection. Often an app or online game will ask to collect their data in exchange for downloading or playing. Make sure they understand the risks, so they can make informed choices. (Some parental controls on their devices might not be a bad idea, either.)

Privacy is at least as important for kids as it is for adults, not only to protect them from identity theft but because the data profiles that are created now will affect them for life. According to UNICEF, more than 175,000 kids globally go on the Internet for the first time every day. They are the citizens of tomorrow, so, for the sake of their future and ours, they deserve all the protection that law, technology, and vigilant parenting can provide.