The US FTC is considering strengthening regulations to protect children’s data privacy. 

The proposed changes would limit companies’ ability to profit from children’s data. Currently, the FTC has enforced its Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) since 2000. 

Targeted advertising would be turned off as standard for children’s social media accounts, surveillance in schools would be restricted and push notifications to children would also be limited. 

The FTC stated that this would attempt to shift the responsibility for children’s data protection from parents to providers. 

“Kids must be able to play and learn online without being endlessly tracked by companies looking to hoard and monetise their personal data,” stated FTC Chair Lina Khan.

“By requiring firms to better safeguard kids’ data, our proposal places affirmative obligations on service providers and prohibits them from outsourcing their responsibilities to parents,” Khan added. 

In a blog post addressed to businesses, the FTC clarified that businesses affected have 60 days to comment on the proposed changes. 

Social media companies have already faced legal scrutiny over their use of data. 

Meta was sued back in October by more than 30 US states claiming that its design of Instagram and Facebook was addictive and harmful to children. 

In 2023 alone, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance and Meta were fined a combined $7.7bn for breaching data privacy laws over their ad-targeting practices. 

Due to this increasing pressure, research analysis company GlobalData forecast in its social media report that social media providers will need to diversify their revenue away from an ad-funded business model.