Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-45571174-20200917215136/@comment-43622785-20200919213719

I guess a few things must be made clear:

Per the law that passed in October of 1998 and went into effect by April of 2000, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act applies to websites and online services operated for commercial purposes that are either directed towards children under 13 or have actual knowledge that children under 13 are providing information online. Most recognized non-profit organizations are exempt from most of the requirements of COPPA. FANDOM and YouTube are both commercial websites and, you guessed it, require people that maybe underage to get a consent from the websites in order to prove their ages or have a parent around watching (of course, not something that most do these days in spite of COVID-19 restrictions), among other important aspects.

Likewise, to get more technical, a “safe harbor” provision was designed to encourage increased industry self-regulation in this area. Under this provision, industry groups and others may ask the Commission to approve self-regulatory guidelines that implement the protections of the Rule. Companies that comply with the FTC-approved guidelines receive safe harbor from agency enforcement action under the Rule.

So imagine a bunch of Elementary kids on FANDOM Wikis right now playing with the edit buttons. What would you try to do about it? Per some cases, they may let themselves get away with being underage. But at the same, any private or personal information about them could be considered a violation of COPPA, which is probably why you're simply unwilling to comply (are you even).

In conclusion, love it or not, COPPA still plays a key role in protecting children under 13 from being collected for information and they can have it their ways. The last 4 US Presidents supported it and so am I and many other people; anything to the contrary would all be denied.