The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 1998 is an act contained in the United States’ law that warrants all operators of websites to include specific information in its privacy policy. This act pertains to the collection of information of personal nature by organizations or individuals within the United States of children under the age of 13 years. The law also applies to entities within the United States that collect personal information of children under the age of 13 outside of the United States.
This act was brought about by new ethical issues that arose from advances in technology that disconcerted parents and the general public in the United States. The information collected by web operators would at times be used by predators who would later come to defile or traffic the young children. The information given to websites and applications would disclose locations of the young children and leave them vulnerable to such dangers. Another concern was on the kind of material young children would be viewing. As more children had access to the internet and mobile phones, parents and guardians were concerned about the type of material, their children were exposed to and the implications of violent or pornographic material. Therefore they pushed for this act to have some parental control on what their children consume over the internet. Lastly, technologies like GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking would be used maliciously to track children without their knowledge, and this is a potential hazard to children and their families as well. Hence the need for the act.