Firms sweat details of revised COPPA rules

Tech and media companies — from Disney to small app makers — face the same dilemma as they near a July 1 deadline to bolster online privacy protections for children: getting it right.

Industry advocates paint a dire scenario of costly audits, abandoned projects and disrupted business models as firms prepare for the first significant changes under the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act since the rise of mobile technology and social networks. Privacy groups and the Federal Trade Commission, which set the new COPPA requirements, view the expanded rules as vital to protecting kids. And while few denounce that goal, the tensions underscore new complexities in an era where businesses increasingly rely on data collection and children have unparalleled access to the Internet. Affected businesses unite on one point: The shifts meant to promote kid safety could destroy that very market.