Oath, Verizon Subsidiary to Pay Largest-Ever COPPA Enforcement Fine in the US for Targeting Ads to Children

Oath, a Verizon subsidiary that is an ad tech division created from the merging of AOL and Yahoo, just agreed to pay nearly $5 million to settle charges with the New York Attorney General's office. The company's advertising practices online were said to have violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This is the largest penalty a company has agreed to pay since COPPA was enacted in 1998.

COPPA requires companies to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting children's personal information. According to Barbara D. Underwood, New York's attorney general, "AOL flagrantly violated the law--and children's privacy..."

The New York Times reported that AOL, through its ad exchange was placing targeted ads on hundreds of websites that it knew were directed to children under 13. The ads were chosen by utilizing personally identifiable information of children, in violation of COPPA.

Visit the New York Times online for further information about the New York attorney general action against Oath.

CARU Speaks at Community Board in Manhattan

CARU staff attorney Andra Dallas gave a presentation to Community Board 1, serving lower Manhattan on Monday, December 7 th . Andra spoke to the Board’s Youth Committee about the importance of teaching children about understanding advertising and safe online practices. District Manager Noah Pfefferblit remarked, “thank you for your informative presentation to our Youth Committee members,” and offered the Board’s assistance if they “can be helpful to the important efforts at the Children's Advertising Review Unit.” Are you interested in having a CARU staff member visit your community board? Contact adallas@caru.bbb.org.

i-Dressup Shuts Down in Wake of Privacy Breach and COPPA Violation

I-Dressup, a fashion-themed social website for teens, has completely shut down as part of a settlement with the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs, following a massive privacy breach and violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and New Jersey state law. In September 2016, a hacker sent 2.2 million i-Dressup account credentials to technology blog Arstechnica as well as to haveibeenpwned.com, a searchable online database of data breaches. Responding to the news, New Jersey investigators discovered that 2,519 of the compromised accounts belonged to New Jersey children below age 13. I-Dressup, allegedly aware that it had child users, had violated COPPA by failing to obtain verifiable parental consent prior to collecting and processing personal information from the children, including first and last names and email addresses. In a consent decree with the New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Gerwal, parent company Unixiz has closed i-Dressup,

Kids Internet Design and Safety Act Seeks to Protect Children from Harmful Online Content

United States Senators, Mr. Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut and Mr. Edward Markey from Massachusetts, introduced a new bill referred to as the Kids Internet Design and Safety Act (the “KIDS Act”). One of the Senator’s introducing the KIDS Act, Mr. Edward Markey, was the co-author of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). The KIDS Act seeks to include noteworthy advertising rules and create new protections for children online, specifically for online users under the age of 16. The proposed advertising rules within the KIDS Act are to ban websites from: (1) exposing young online users to advertisements “with embedded interactive elements”; (2) recommending any content involving alcohol, nicotine, or tobacco to young online users; and (3) recommending content that includes influencer marketing, like unboxing videos, or host-selling to young online users. Additionally, the KIDS Act seeks to prohibit certain online features to protect children, like prohibiting

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