Publishings Digital Youth

June 23, 2025Dear Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Cantwell, and Members of the Committee,Today we write as a coalition of advocates dedicated to the mental and physical health, privacy, safety, and education of our nation’s youth, urging you to advance the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (S. 836), also known as COPPA 2.0. The children’s data privacy protection law is long outdated. Now, with new and even more powerful technologies, like AI, proliferating, and unscrupulous companies collecting ever more personal information from young people, it is more imperative than ever that Congress prioritize privacy protections for children and teens by updating the decades-old Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and passing COPPA 2.0 out of your Committee.COPPA 2.0 is an effective, widely supported, bipartisan update to its 25-year-old predecessor. And the Senate overwhelmingly approved this bill once already, by a vote of 91-3 in July 2024 as part of the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act.We appreciate the recent rule-making efforts of the FTC to update COPPA. However, certain updates–such as adding protections for teenagers 13 and over–can only be made by Congress, and thus COPPA 2.0 is still desperately needed. COPPA 2.0 extends privacy protections to teens, implements strong data minimization principles, bans targeted advertising to covered minors, gives families greater control over their data, and strengthens the law to ensure covered entities cannot evade enforcement. American families urgently need these protections. Big Tech’s business model relies on the extraction of millions of data points on children and teens, all to rake in record profi ts through design features that maximize engagement and models that interpret youth’s emotional states in order to make more money off of highly targeted ads.The use of targeted advertising results in kids being shown ads for alcohol, tobacco, diet pills, and gambling sites–and there is a growing understanding that platforms use highly detailed information about young users to target them with these inappropriate ads at the moment they are feeling insecure or emotionally vulnerable; precisely the moment at which they are most susceptible.These privacy risks and harms are multiplied because social media platforms are designed to be addictive, so that kids will spend more time online–giving companies more opportunities to take out more information about young users, so they can even better target kids and their familieswith marketing messages, and target kids more often. As the former U.S. Surgeon General has advised, this misuse of young people’s personal information has contributed to a startling mental health crisis among our youth, along with a myriad of online harms, including sexual exploitation, rampant cyberbullying, and eating disorders. The data-driven business model, which is being exacerbated by AI, is directly at odds with the health, safety, and privacy of our nation’s children and teens, and Congress must act to put new safeguards in place.COPPA 2.0 is a critical piece of the puzzle to protect children and teens. America’s youth and families cannot wait any longer. With our utmost respect, we ask that you move COPPA 2.0 forward.Sincerely,American Academy of PediatricsCenter for Digital DemocracyCommon Sense MediaFairplay

January 16, 2025Center for Digital DemocracyWashington, DCContact: Katharina Kopp, kkopp@democraticmedia.org Statement on the Federal Trade Commission’s Amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule The following statement is attributed to Katharina Kopp, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Center for Digital Democracy:As digital media becomes increasingly embedded in children’s lives, it more aggressively surveils, manipulates, discriminates, exploits, and harms them. Families and caregivers know all too well the impossible task of keeping children safe online. Strong privacy protections are critical to ensuring their well-being and safety. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) finalized amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) are a crucial step forward, enhancing safeguards and shifting the responsibility for privacy protections from parents to service providers. Key updates include:Restrictions on hyper-personalized data collection for targeted advertising:Mandating separate parental consent for disclosing personal information to third parties.Prohibiting the conditioning of service access on such consent.Limits on data retention:Imposing stricter data retention limits.Baseline and default privacy protections:Strengthening purpose specification and disclosure requirements.Enhanced data security requirements:Requiring robust information security programs.We commend the FTC, under Chair Lina Khan’s leadership, for finalizing this much-needed update to the COPPA Rule. The last revision, in 2013, was over a decade ago. Since then, the digital landscape has been radically transformed by practices such as mass data collection, AI-driven systems, cloud-based interconnected platforms, sentiment and facial analytics, cross-platform tracking, and manipulative, addictive design practices. These largely unregulated, Big Tech and investor driven transformations have created a hyper-surveillance environment that is especially harmful and toxic to children and teens.The data-driven, targeted advertising business model continues to pose daily threats to the health, safety, and privacy of children and their families. The FTC’s updated rule is a small but significant step toward addressing these risks, curbing harmful practices by Big Tech, and strengthening privacy protections for America’s youth online.To ensure comprehensive safeguards for children and teens in the digital world, it is essential that the incoming FTC leadership enforces the updated COPPA Rule vigorously and without delay. Additionally, it is imperative that Congress enacts further privacy protections and establishes prohibitions against harmful applications of AI technologies.                                                         * * *In 2024, a coalition of eleven leading health, privacy, consumer protection, and child rights groups filed comments at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offering a digital roadmap for stronger safeguards while also supporting many of the agency’s key proposals for updating its regulations implementing the bipartisan Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Comments were submitted by Fairplay, the Center for Digital Democracy, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other advocacy groups. The Center for Digital Democracy is a public interest research and advocacy organization, established in 2001, which works on behalf of citizens, consumers, communities, and youth to protect and expand privacy, digital rights, and data justice. CDD’s predecessor, the Center for Media Education, lead the campaign for the passage of COPPA over 25 years ago in 1998. 

Center for Digital DemocracyWashington, DCContact: Katharina Kopp, kkopp@democraticmedia.org  Statement Regarding the FTC 6(b) Study on Data Practices of Social Media and Video Streaming Services -“A Look Behind the Screens Examining the Data Practices of Social Media and Video Streaming Services”The following statement can be attributed to Katharina Kopp, Ph.D., Deputy Director,Center for Digital Democracy:The Center for Digital Democracy welcomes the release of the FTC’s 6(b) study on social media and video streaming providers’ data practices and it evidence-based recommendations.In 2019, Fairplay (then the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC)), the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), and 27 other organizations, and their attorneys at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation urged the Commission to use its 6(b) authority to better understand how tech companies collect and use data from children.The report’s findings show that social media and video streaming providers’ s business model produces an insatiable hunger for data about people. These companies create a vast surveillance apparatus sweeping up personal data and creating an inescapable matrix of AI applications. These data practices lead to numerous well-documented harms, particularly for children and teens. These harms include manipulation and exploitation, loss of autonomy, discrimination, hate speech and disinformation, the undermining of democratic institutions, and most importantly, the pervasive mental health crisis among the youth.The FTC's call for comprehensive privacy legislation is crucial in curbing the harmful business model of Big Tech. We support the FTC’s recommendation to better protect teens but call, specifically, for a ban on targeted advertising to do so. We strongly agree with the FTC that companies should be prohibited from exploiting young people's personal information, weaponizing AI and algorithms against them, and using their data to foster addiction to streaming videos.That is why we urge this Congress to pass COPPA 2.0 and KOSA which will compel Big Tech companies to acknowledge the presence of children and teenagers on their platforms and uphold accountability. The responsibility for rectifying the flaws in their data-driven business model rests with Big Tech, and we express our appreciation to the FTC for highlighting this important fact. ________________The Center for Digital Democracy is a public interest research and advocacy organization, established in 2001, which works on behalf of citizens, consumers, communities, and youth to protect and expand privacy, digital rights, and data justice. CDD’s predecessor, the Center for Media Education, lead the campaign for the passage of COPPA over 25 years ago in 1998.

Center for Digital Democracy                                                                                 Washington, DC       July 30, 2024                                                                                                                  Contact: Katharina Kopp, kkopp@democraticmedia.org Statement Regarding the U.S. Senate Vote to Advance the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (S. 2073). The following statement can be attributed to Katharina Kopp, Ph.D., Deputy Director,Center for Digital Democracy: Today is a milestone in the decades long effort to protect America’s young people from the harmful impacts caused by the out-of-control and unregulated social and digital media business model. The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), if passed by the House and enacted into law, will safeguard children and teens from digital marketers who manipulate and employ unfair data-driven marketing tactics to closely surveil, profile, and target young people.  These include an array of ever-expanding tactics that are discriminatory and unfair. The new law would protect children and teens being exposed to addictive algorithms and other harmful practices across online platforms, protecting the mental health and well-being of youth and their families. Building on the foundation of the 25-year-old Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), KOSPA will provide protections to teens under 17. It will prohibit targeted advertising to children and teens, impose data minimization requirements, and compel companies to acknowledge the presence of young online users on their platforms and apps. The safety by design provisions will necessitate the disabling of addictive product features and the option for users to opt out of addictive algorithmic recommender systems. Companies will be obliged to prevent and mitigate harms to children, such as bullying and violence, promotion of suicide, eating disorders, and sexual exploitation. Crucially, most of these safeguards will be automatically implemented, relieving children, teens, and their families of the burden to take further action. The responsibility to rectify the worst aspects of their data-driven business model will lie squarely with Big Tech, as it should have all along. We express our gratitude for the leadership and support of Majority Leader Schumer, Chairwoman Cantwell, Ranking Member Cruz, and Senators Blumenthal, Blackburn, Markey, Cassidy, along with their staff, for making this historic moment possible in safeguarding children and teens online. Above all, we are thankful to all the parents and families who have tirelessly advocated for common-sense safeguards. We now urge the House of Representatives to act upon their return from the August recess. The time for hesitation is over. About the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD)The Center for Digital Democracy is a public interest research and advocacyorganization, established in 2001, which works on behalf of citizens, consumers, communities, and youth to protect and expand privacy, digital rights, and data justice. CDD’s predecessor, the Center for Media Education, lead the campaign for the passage of COPPA over 25 years ago, in 1998.

"Children and Teens Need Effective Privacy Protections Now"“We have two reactions to the legislation the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation plans to consider on Thursday.  On the one hand, we appreciate that the subcommittee is taking up the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) as a standalone bill, as we had recommended. Congressional action to make the internet safer for kids and teens is long overdue, so we welcome this step tomorrow. As the Members know, KOSA has 69 co-sponsors in the Senate, has bi-partisan support in both houses, and has overwhelming popular support across the country as demonstrated by numerous public polls and in the strong advocacy actions in the Capitol and elsewhere. “On the other hand, we are very disappointed in the privacy legislation the subcommittee will take up as it relates to children and teens. We have always maintained, and the facts are clear on this, that stronger data privacy protections for kids and teens should go hand in hand with new social media platform guardrails. The bi-partisan COPPA 2.0 (H.R. 7890), to update the 25- year-old children's privacy law, is not being considered as a standalone bill on Thursday. And further, we are very disappointed with the revised text of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) discussion draft as it relates to children and teen privacy. “When the APRA discussion draft was first unveiled on April 7th, we understood Committee leadership to say that the bill would need stronger youth privacy protections. More than a month later, there are no new effective protections for youth in the new draft that was released at 10:00 pm last night, compared with the original discussion draft from April. The new APRA discussion draft purports to include COPPA 2.0 (as Title II) but does not live up to the standalone COPPA 2.0 legislation introduced in the House last month, and supported on a bipartisan, bicameral basis, in terms of protections for children and teens. Furthermore, the youth provisions in APRA’s discussion draft appear impossible to implement without additional clarifications. Lastly, in addition to these highly significant shortcomings, we are also concerned that Title II of the new APRA draft may actually weaken current privacy protections for children, by limiting coverage of sites and services. “Children and teens need effective privacy protections now. We expect the Committee to do better than this, and we look forward to working with them to make sure that once and for all Congress puts kids and teens first when it comes to privacy and online safety.” Signed: Center for Digital Democracy, Common Sense Media, and Fairplay

Read the attached letter.