COPPA - is it doing children online more harm than good?

Last month, we published a review of COPPA's proposed changes, which concluded that, whilst the aims are laudable, the proposed changes are unlikely to be effective or workable, and may indeed, result in more harm.

And indeed, as it currently stands, COPPA is reported to be seriously flawed and counter-productive.  This month, the redoubtable danah boyd from Microsoft Research and a team from US universities have published 'Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’: a highly readable piece of research into parents' views of their children's rights to social network access, based on a national sample of 1,007 US parents who have children living with them between the ages of 10-14.

 Among parents of 10-to-14-year-old Facebook users, 84% were aware their children signed up and, of that 84%, nearly two-thirds (64%) even "helped create the account," the authors wrote. "Our data show that many parents knowingly allow their children to lie about their age – in fact, often help them to do so – in order to gain access to age-restricted sites in violation of those sites’ Terms of Service. This is especially true for general-audience social media sites and communication services such as Facebook, Gmail, and Skype, which allow children to connect with peers, classmates, and family members for educational, social, or familial reasons."

The report highlighted these issues:

• Do parents understand why there is a restriction?  (no). 
• Do they understand that it derives from COPPA legislation and is an attempt to protect their children's privacy? (no).  
• However, are they concerned about these privacy issues and online safety? (yes)
• Do they understand that the age restriction is a requirement and not an recommendation? (no)

Some of the report's conclusions:

As a result of COPPA, lying about one’s age has become normal, and parents often help children lie, which creates safety and privacy issues  - because children lie about their age, these sites still collect data about children under 13 that COPPA would otherwise prohibit without explicit parental consent.

Online safety and privacy are of great concern to parents, but most parents do not want solutions that result in age-based restrictions for their children: "Rather than providing parents with additional mechanisms to engage with sites honestly and negotiate the proper bounds of data collection about their children, parents are often actively helping their children deceive the sites in order to achieve access to the opportunities they desire. Were parents and their children able to gain access honestly, the site providers might well present them with child-appropriate experiences and information designed to enhance safety, provide for better privacy protections, and encourage parent-child discussions of online safety. With deception being the only means of access, these possibilities for discussion, collaboration and learning are hindered."

Online safety and privacy are of great concern to parents, but most parents do not want solutions that result in age-based restrictions for their children. Parents are open to recommended age ratings [as with film ratings, for example] and other approaches that offer guidance without limiting their children’s access.

So, why do parents help their children lie to get onto Facebook?

Because "they want their kids to have access to public life,"   danah boyd told ConnectSafely.org co-direct Larry Magid in an interview for CNET: "Today, what public life means is participating in commercial sites. They want to help their kids get on these sites and use them responsibly."

"These are not parents who are saying, 'Oh, get on Facebook' and then walk away," danah continued. "these are parents who have the computer in the living room, they're having conversations with their kids, they're often helping them create their accounts to talk to Grandma. They're helping them actually negotiate all of this. And they want to do it often in the middle school years, when they can actually have reasonable conversations about how to act responsibly and where they can be present in this."


So, can COPPA be fixed?

The report proposes that "policy–makers shift away from privacy regulation models that are based on age or other demographic categories and, instead, develop universal privacy protections for online users. This would avoid creating an environment where service providers like Facebook have incentives to “divide and conquer” populations in terms of privacy and data collection policies. This would not only eliminate the problems with age–based prohibitions and circumventions, but also provide increased privacy protection to both teens and adults. As modern online data collection and advertising practices become more complex, it is not just children who need protections.


"Furthermore, given many parents’ openness to recommendations, it might be useful to develop mechanisms to provide parents with recommendations about the appropriateness of various sites for children of different ages and the various risks that users may face. Our findings show that parents are indeed concerned about privacy and online safety issues, but they also show that they may not understand the risks that children face or how their data are used. Greater transparency and increased information flow can help parents make appropriate decisions."

As we've said before, Facebook with stabilisers please.

Image courtsey of http://www.toledoblade.com/