FTC clarifies COPPA age verification exemption

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that it will not enforce Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule penalties against companies that properly use age verification technologies to collect and process personal data, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, the FTC clarified that exemptions to its COPPA Rule apply if websites give parents and children who have had their information collected for age verification clear notice, only share the data with third parties they are confident will keep it private, do not use or disclose a user's age for any purpose other than confirming their age, and do not keep the information after verification.

The FTC also said it plans to review the COPPA Rule to further tackle age verification. According to the agency, companies must "employ reasonable security safeguards" for data gathered during age checks and take "reasonable steps to determine that any product, service, method, or third party utilized for age verification purposes is likely to provide reasonably accurate results as to the user's age."

The statement follows remarks made last month in which agency officials described age verification as an important child protection tool and signaled that guidance would be issued to reassure companies about complying with COPPA.