Compliancy Requirements and Protected Information for Coppa and Cipa

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To ensure successful implementation of CIPA, more of public efforts and input is required. Internet safety education should be provided to people concern with implementation so that they can effectively monitor the use of internet by children. For COPPA there is a need of supplementary solutions to deal with drawbacks. These supplementary solutions may include technologies such as the age verification system in order to ensure additional security for children.

Protection for different ages under COPPA and CIPA

COPPA defines a child as being under the age of 13. This is because this Act is meant for the protection of personal information on the internet. This Act only works for securing the sharing of information on general audience websites and a child above the age of 13 can share his information online if he feels like. This Act does not monitor the content which is being accessed and therefore there the age of 13 is appropriate for this Act.

CIPA on the other hand defines a minor as being under the age of 17. This is because this Act is meant for schools and its function is to limit the content that is available on the internet and is not useful for children. The school age of children is usually marked up to the age of 17 and therefore in order to ensure the effective implementation of this Act, it is mandatory that the age limit should comply with the school age of children.

If the age limit for CIPA will be lesser than 17, then this will be in contrast with the age limit of children and this will make the implementation of the Act difficult at school. Therefore, the age has to be maintained at 17 for this Act.

Main Opposition to COPPA and CIPA

The main opposition to COPPA comes from social networking sites who are the ones getting most affected by the Act. These companies have accused the law stating that the law didn’t understand the relationship existing between the website publishers and plug-in developers. They also stated that the imposing of rules under COPPA will hold the hosts responsible for the content on the internet.

They even opposed COPPA by saying that it is becoming a barrier by hindering the ability of children to access the useful online resources available for education. The CIPA has been opposed on the context that people have not understood its importance as a part of school education (Jaeger & Yan, 2013). They have always focused on the linked revenue rather than the importance.

These oppositions might change in future if the social networking website will realize the importance of the Act and will honestly work for towards implementing it. Opposition to CIPA can only be reduced through public awareness and guidance and it is very essential to spread public awareness towards it so that the successful implantation of both the Acts can take place.

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References

Chrislip, J. (2005). Filtering the Internet Like a Smokestack: How the Children’s Internet Protection Act Suggests a New Internet Regulation Analogy. J. High Tech. L., 5, 261.

Hostetler, D. R., & Okada, S. F. (2013). CHILDREN’S PRIVACY IN VIRTUAL K-12 EDUCATION: VIRTUAL SOLUTIONS OF THE AMENDED CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT (COPPA) RULE. NCJL & Tech. On., 14, 167-335.

Jaeger, P. T., & Yan, Z. (2013). One law with two outcomes: Comparing the implementation of CIPA in public libraries and schools. Information Technology and Libraries, 28(1), 6-14.

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