What is COPPA in advertising?
COPPA, the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, requires websites, apps and ad tech that target children under 13, or knowingly collect their data, to get verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information, including persistent identifiers used for ad targeting. In practice, child-directed content can only carry contextual ads without tracking.
The Federal Trade Commission enforces COPPA and has brought large cases, including a 2019 settlement with Google and YouTube for $170 million. Platforms now label child-directed content, and ad requests from such content carry a COPPA flag in the bid request so buyers switch off behavioral targeting.
The FTC finalized updates to its COPPA rule in 2025, tightening consent requirements for sharing children's data with third parties, including for advertising. Similar protections exist under GDPR and the UK's Age Appropriate Design Code.