Podcast: Could expanding privacy law harm children?

A new report from the Progress & Freedom Foundation says that officials in some states want to pass legislation that would extend the Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) from covering children under 13 to covering teens until they're 18.

COPPA, which became law in 1998, requires verifiable parental consent before a child under 13 can provide personally identifiable information to a Web site that caters to children. Expanding the law to cover teens till they're 18, according to the report, would "require Web sites to obtain more information about both minors and their parents, which runs counter to the original goal of the Act: protecting the privacy of minors." Ultimately, say the authors, "this would actually make minors less 'safe online.'"

In this podcast, the report's co-author, PFF Senior Fellow Adam Thierer, explains the original COPPA law and why, in his opinion, the expanded law could have a chilling effect on the free speech rights of minors.

The podcast runs 11:30

Listen now: Download today's podcast

[kisekileia]

People don't realize how vital it can be for teens to be able to speak their minds. The Internet is an outlet for abused teens, for LGBTQ teens who can't come out to their families, for kids having emotional problems that they can't/won't tell their parents about...it's so important. Teens need to be able to speak for themselves, to interact on the Internet without their parents always looking over their shoulders. I know people who would likely not be alive now had they, as teens, been deprived of that right.

[Lumiseon]

Quite correct. The moment they try doing that, I'm pretty sure that many, if not all of the teenage hackers will pull a revolt. A well deserved Internet revolt on that.

[monkeyfun14]

Oh come on really we all know the COPPA act doesn't even work. If a kid wants on a site bad enough they will simply lie about their age.

COPPA isn't stopping kids from getting on any site whether it be chat or pornography.

[xcal78]

I know a lot of parents fail when it comes to their kids. If they think this is going to do their job for them it failed at 13 and it'll fail at 18.