FTC Encourages Use Of Technologies For Age Verification In COPPA Statement

The FTC recently issued a COPPA enforcement policy statement regarding age verification. This statement adds to the children’s patchwork, which we recently wrote about. The statement also comes in advance of the April 22, 2026 compliance deadline for new COPPA Rules (which we wrote about last year).

Many websites fall into a category that under COPPA are considered “mixed audience.” These are sites that are appealing both to children and to older users. Many of these sites, according to the FTC’s statement, differentiate between users who are over as opposed to under 13. For the latter, they seek parental consent. To identify ages, they ask the user. There are, however, many technologies that would function better than self-reporting, the FTC notes. Sites have worried, though, that if they collect personal information from a child and share it with one of these age verification tools, they will be in violation of COPPA. In its statement, the FTC has indicated that it will not bring