Children´s data protection and parental consent. A best practice analysis to inform the EU data protection reform
October 2013
Advertising Education Forum (Research & Publications)
In January 2012, the European Commission published a comprehensive reform of the data protection rules in the form of a Data Protection Regulation1. According to the proposal, for the first time ever, the EU may be enforcing special data protection rules for children, including a provision that would require organizations to obtain parental consent for collecting and processing personal information for children under the age of 13.
The purpose of this piece of research is to inform ongoing discussions on the best methods to obtain parental consent. Looking at the available evidence and learning from the experience of other regions of the world, this research tries to identify the best means to obtain parental consent in a meaningful, time efficient and practical way.
This research aims to inform future discussions on the best means to obtain parental consent in a meaningful, time efficient and practical way. The objective is to provide evidence-based best-practice solutions that could form the basis for a future framework on this issue.
To achieve this, the current legislative landscape will first be analysed. The main focus will be on the United States which has, through the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), implemented a comprehensive framework of practices governing rules on parental consent. The new rules proposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), unveiled in December 2012, together with contributions submitted by industry leaders, think-tanks and consumer groups as part of the public consultation on the COPPA review, as well as academic evidence, will be closely reviewed. We will then take a look at how market leaders have implemented current requirements with respect to data collection from children under 13 in order to determine best-practices guidelines for the European Union market.
