FTC: COPPA Does Not Preempt State Teen Online Protections

The Federal Trade Commission has told the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth District that the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) does not preempt state privacy protections for teenagers' online information.

That came in an amicus filing to the court in a case involving Facebook's Sponsored Stories feature that allegedly "deploys" users' names and images without their consent, which would violate California privacy and unfair competition law, said the FTC.

While Facebook settled the class action suit, which was filed in district court, some of the members of the class objected and challenged the settlement, saying Facebook had not ensured that valid parental consent would be needed for Sponsored Stories. The court rejected that appeal, saying that COPPA "may 'bar any efforts by plaintiffs to use state law to impose a parental consent requirement for minors over the age of 13.' COPPA's online privacy protections only apply to Web sites targeted to kids under 13."