#
Children's protections are comparatively mature and actively enforced, but coverage is capped at under-13 federally (teens are not covered by COPPA) and dependent-adult protections are largely unaddressed.
Sub-modules (5)
Age VerificationAmber
The FTC's February 2026 COPPA policy statement will not pursue enforcement against operators using personal data solely to determine a user's age via age-verification technology, subject to specified conditions.
Claims (1):
- The FTC's February 2026 policy statement announces it will not bring COPPA Rule enforcement actions against general-audience and mixed-audience operators that collect, use, or disclose personal information solely to determine a user's age via age-verification technologies, subject to specified data-minimization and retention conditions.
Parental ConsentAmber
COPPA requires verifiable parental consent before collection/use/disclosure of a child's personal information, with 2025 amendments adding separate opt-in consent for third-party targeted-advertising disclosures.
Claims (2):
- The COPPA Rule requires operators of child-directed sites/services, and general-audience operators with actual knowledge, to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing a child's personal information.
- 2025 COPPA Rule amendments require operators to obtain separate, verifiable parental consent before disclosing a child's personal information to third parties for targeted advertising or similar purposes.
Minor Profiling BansAmber
No general federal minor-profiling ban was identified; California's forthcoming age-assurance/parental-consent rulemaking under the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act is the most proximate state-level development.
Claims (1):
- California's Attorney General's office has indicated it may soon begin rulemaking on age assurance and parental consent under the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act.
Education SettingsAmber
The FTC's 2025 COPPA amendments deliberately declined to adopt ed-tech-specific provisions, deferring to the pending FERPA amendment process at the Department of Education.
Claims (1):
- The FTC's 2025 COPPA Rule amendments declined to adopt proposed changes relating to requirements applicable to educational technology companies operating in a school environment.
Dependent AdultsRed
No dependent-adult-specific data-protection provisions were identified in this research pass.
Absence provenance: unavailable. Searched: US federal dependent adult data privacy protections, elderly data protection statute US 2026.
Children & Vulnerable Groups
The FTC issued an Enforcement Policy Statement Promoting the Adoption of Age-Verification Technology on February 25, 2026, sustaining an active enforcement priority around protecting children online and signaling continued regulatory attention to age-verification mechanisms as a compliance tool for entities handling children's data. This is a non-binding guidance instrument rather than a rule, and it does not itself impose new binding obligations, but it indicates the direction the FTC intends to push compliance expectations for entities subject to children's-privacy obligations.
This sustained COPPA-adjacent enforcement priority continues a pattern of active federal attention to children's online privacy even in the absence of comprehensive federal privacy legislation covering the general population.
Outlook
Entities handling children's data should expect continued FTC attention to age-verification technology adoption as an enforcement and compliance-expectation priority. No new binding rule was identified this cycle beyond the February 2026 policy statement.
Sources and claims (2)
- ProbableFTC — The FTC's February 2026 policy statement announces it will not bring COPPA Rule enforcement actions against general-audience and mixed-audience operators that collect, use, or disclose personal information solely to determine a user's age via age-verification technologies, subject to specified data-minimization and retention conditions.observed
- ProbableIAPP — California's Attorney General's office has indicated it may soon begin rulemaking on age assurance and parental consent under the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act.observed