WEEK 8: Child Privacy Online

Researching how to comply with child privacy policy

We realize that in dealing with children, we have to consider many possible repercussions for not complying with laws regarding the privacy of children online.

The most relevant law that applies to us is the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This law deals with collecting information on users under 13 years of age. While non-profits like our service are not required to comply with COPPA, we strongly feel that we should. Thankfully, FreshAir’s digital interaction is all between the mentor and parent, so we are compliant as long as we gain consent to hold information about the child before signup.

We also considered how we might eventually allow children to directly take part in the digital conversation with the mentor. As long as they are over 13, they are legally allowed to, but we also believe that we should collect parental permission again when this happens.

Additionally, states have different regulation when allowing adults to directly interact with children. For example in Pennsylvania, new laws were put in place in 2015 that required everyone interacting with children to get state and FBI background checks. These checks must also be renewed every 3 years and costs money out of pocket for the person applying. We must be aware of state regulations of every state FreshAir expands to.