COPPA Questions: Are Safe Harbors Effective?
March 23, 2022
As the drumbeat to modernize the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) continues, all components of the 1998 law have come under scrutiny, particularly the Safe Harbor provision. Under COPPA, the FTC has the ability to approve industry
groups to administer self-regulatory programs implementing the protections for children outlined in the rule. Recently, some lawmakers have raised concerns that Safe Harbors are not an effective complement to the COPPA rule and might even be allowing
for the rubberstamping of businesses that take advantage of Safe Harbors.
To answer this question of whether or Safe Harbors are effective, Mamie Kresses, Vice President of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), hosted a discussion with two people who have been very involved in COPPA compliance from
different perspectives: Sheila Millar, Partner at Keller and Heckman, and Daniel Kaufman, Partner at Baker Hostetler and former Deputy Director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection. Listen in to hear these experts’ thoughts on the value
of the Safe Harbor provision, whether it should remain a part of the rule going forward, and ways the provision can be modernized and improved.