COPPA AND CIPA

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COPPA AND CIPA
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COPPA AND CIPA

Compliancy Requirements and Protected Information for COPPA and CIPA
In order to gain compliance for the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, one must be
operating an online service or a commercial website which is directed to children under 13 and
should be collecting all the types of personal information from children. An individual who is
operating a general website for the audience can also compliance for the Act if he has actual
knowledge of the fact that he is collecting some sort of private information from children.
This Act applies to the information that identifies the individuality of a child and this
information should be collected by online means. The information might include name, home
address, email, contact number, etc which could allow any person to contact a child. This Act
also covers information related to the interest, hobbies and also all the information that is
collected through other forms of tracking mechanisms.
In order to obtain compliance for the Childrens Internet Protection Act, the schools
should prove that they are using technology protection measures such as an internet safety policy
which is being implemented successfully at the time of service (Chrislip, 2005). It must filter or
block access to data that might include child pornography, obscene or any other information
harmful to minors. They should also be able to monitor the online activities that children perform
on the internet.
Similarities and Differences between COPPA and CIPA
COPPA and CIPA are both similar in the way that they both work for children in order to
protect them from threats that might affect them mentally (Hostetler & Okada, 2013). The
younger age is the age when an individual develops his ideas and beliefs about life and exposure

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to threats arising from leak of personal information or from obscene things on internet can cause
great harm and negativity in development. Hence, both these Acts work for the protection of
Children.
They are different in the respect that one works for protecting the personal information of
children on the general sites on the internet in order to ensure that no one misuses this
information for causing any harm to children (Chrislip, 2005). The other operates in schools in
order to ensure that the content to which the children have access is filtered and does not
contains any information which is not meant for them. Both have different implementations and
different compliancy requirements.
There is a need for two different Acts in order to ensure the proper working of the laws
and to separate the sections in which these laws will operate. This increases the efficiency of
implementation of the laws. If there will be one Act only then it will become difficult to monitor
each and everything under it. Therefore, there is a need for two different Acts in order to
implement them successfully.
The Most Challenging Elements of both COPPA and CIPA
The most challenging element for COPPA is that the younger children these days are
migrating towards more public and general audience websites. These websites mostly include the
social networking websites and other such websites which are meant for adults and are not
intended for the use of small children (Hostetler & Okada, 2013). These websites attract their
presence and it is becoming difficult to monitor it.

COPPA AND CIPA

There is great potential for age falsification to happen on these websites which are made
for the general audience. There is an another major challenge which is that do these sites even
know that the information that they are using, collecting and sharing belong to children and can
even contain the correct personal information about them.
The challenges to CIPA implementation is that the schools are not putting in their
complete efforts towards the compliance of it. They are simply applying filters in order to gain
revenues which the government is providing for fulfilling compliance of CIPA. This amount is
provided for installation of more computers and services in schools and hence at most places
filters are just implemented in order to gain this revenue.
To ensure successful implementation of CIPA, more of public efforts and input is
required. Internet safety education should be provided to people concern with implementation so
that they can effectively monitor the use of internet by children. For COPPA there is a need of
supplementary solutions to deal with drawbacks. These supplementary solutions may include
technologies such as the age verification system in order to ensure additional security for
children.
Protection for different ages under COPPA and CIPA
COPPA defines a child as being under the age of 13. This is because this Act is meant for
the protection of personal information on the internet. This Act only works for securing the
sharing of information on general audience websites and a child above the age of 13 can share
his information online if he feels like. This Act does not monitor the content which is being
accessed and therefore there the age of 13 is appropriate for this Act.

COPPA AND CIPA

CIPA on the other hand defines a minor as being under the age of 17. This is because this
Act is meant for schools and its function is to limit the content that is available on the internet
and is not useful for children. The school age of children is usually marked up to the age of 17
and therefore in order to ensure the effective implementation of this Act, it is mandatory that the
age limit should comply with the school age of children.
If the age limit for CIPA will be lesser than 17, then this will be in contrast with the age
limit of children and this will make the implementation of the Act difficult at school. Therefore,
the age has to be maintained at 17 for this Act.
Main Opposition to COPPA and CIPA
The main opposition to COPPA comes from social networking sites who are the ones
getting most affected by the Act. These companies have accused the law stating that the law
didnt understand the relationship existing between the website publishers and plug-in
developers. They also stated that the imposing of rules under COPPA will hold the hosts
responsible for the content on the internet.
They even opposed COPPA by saying that it is becoming a barrier by hindering the
ability of children to access the useful online resources available for education. The CIPA has
been opposed on the context that people have not understood its importance as a part of school
education (Jaeger & Yan, 2013). They have always focused on the linked revenue rather than the
importance.
These oppositions might change in future if the social networking website will realize the
importance of the Act and will honestly work for towards implementing it. Opposition to CIPA

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can only be reduced through public awareness and guidance and it is very essential to spread
public awareness towards it so that the successful implantation of both the Acts can take place.

COPPA AND CIPA

References
Chrislip, J. (2005). Filtering the Internet Like a Smokestack: How the Childrens Internet
Protection Act Suggests a New Internet Regulation Analogy. J. High Tech. L., 5, 261.
Hostetler, D. R., & Okada, S. F. (2013). CHILDRENS PRIVACY IN VIRTUAL K-12
EDUCATION: VIRTUAL SOLUTIONS OF THE AMENDED CHILDRENS ONLINE
PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT (COPPA) RULE. NCJL & Tech. On., 14, 167-335.
Jaeger, P. T., & Yan, Z. (2013). One law with two outcomes: Comparing the implementation of
CIPA in public libraries and schools. Information Technology and Libraries, 28(1), 6-14.