Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS—FTC issues policy statement on COPPA and age verification technologies, (Feb 26, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Bureau of Consumer Protection
The policy statement is intended to encourage the use of age verification technologies to protect children online by announcing enforcement approach regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data to determine the age of a user.
The FTC has issued a policy statement outlining how operators of certain websites and online services may use age-verification technologies without triggering enforcement under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The Commission will not bring an enforcement action under the COPPA Rule against certain website and online service operators that collect, use, and disclose personal information for the sole purpose of determining a user’s age via age verification technologies without first obtaining verifiable parental consent—if they comply with certain conditions.
The FTC intends to begin a broader review of the COPPA Rule to address age-verification mechanisms. The enforcement policy will remain in place until final rule amendments are published or the policy is withdrawn.
“Age verification technologies are some of the most child-protective technologies to emerge in decades,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement. “Our statement incentivizes operators to use these innovative tools, empowering parents to protect their children online.”
COPPA requires operators of commercial websites or online services directed to children under 13, and operators with actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from a child, to provide notice of their information practices to parents and to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information collected from a child under 13.
Over time, increased online engagement by children and the spread of state age-verification laws have led operators to seek more reliable methods of determining users’ ages.
Under the policy statement the Commission will not bring an enforcement action if these operators comply with certain conditions, specifically that they do the following:
do not use or disclose information collected for age verification purposes for any purpose except to determine a user’s age;
do not retain this information longer than necessary to fulfill the age verification purposes, and delete such information promptly thereafter;
disclose information collected for age verification purposes only to those third parties the operator has taken reasonable steps to determine are capable of maintaining the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the information, including by obtaining certain written assurances from those third parties;
provide clear notice to parents and children of the information collected for age verification purposes;
employ reasonable security safeguards for information collected for age verification purposes; 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 policy does not apply if operators fail to comply with any other COPPA requirements for personal information collected from children. The FTC emphasizes that the Commission retains full enforcement authority.
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