Protecting Children's Privacy Online: What Parents Need to Understand

How Children's Data Gets Collected

Every app a child opens, every game they play, and every video they watch online is a potential data collection point. Children's data is gathered through several overlapping mechanisms: account registration forms that capture names, ages, and email addresses; device identifiers that track usage across sessions; behavioral profiling based on what content a child interacts with; and location data collected passively in the background.

Educational platforms, streaming services, and social apps all participate in this ecosystem to varying degrees. Even apps marketed specifically for children may share data with third-party advertising networks. For a broader understanding of how connected devices in the home contribute to this picture, see our guide on smart home data collection.

What Legal Protections Actually Cover

In the United States, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act — commonly known as COPPA — is the primary federal law governing the collection of personal information from children under 13. COPPA requires that operators of websites and online services directed at children obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing a child's personal information.

Key COPPA requirements include: providing clear notice of data practices, allowing parents to review and delete a child's information, and prohibiting conditioning a child's participation on disclosing more information than is reasonably necessary. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces COPPA and has issued substantial fines to companies that have violated it.

However, COPPA has meaningful limits. It does not cover all platforms a teenager might use, and enforcement is reactive rather than preventive. Children aged 13 and older fall outside its protections entirely — yet many platforms allow sign-up at 13 with minimal verification. Parents should treat the law as a floor, not a ceiling.

The Hidden Risks Parents Often Overlook

Beyond data brokers and advertisers, children face privacy risks that are less visible but equally significant. These include:

• Sharenting: Parents themselves inadvertently build a data profile for their child by posting photos and details on social media, sometimes years before a child can consent. Default social media settings often share far more than intended — our guide on social media privacy settings covers how to tighten them.
• In-game data collection: Multiplayer and free-to-play games frequently collect voice chat, friend lists, purchase behavior, and location data.
• School platforms: Ed-tech tools adopted by schools may have their own data-sharing arrangements that families aren't directly notified about.
• Data broker aggregation: Information gathered across platforms can be compiled into detailed profiles. To understand the scope of that problem, see what data brokers know about you.

Practical Settings and Habits to Put in Place

Protective action doesn't require technical expertise. A consistent set of habits across devices and platforms goes a long way.

1. Use family or supervised accounts. Most major platforms and operating systems offer family account features that let parents review permissions, manage app installs, and limit data sharing.
2. Audit app permissions regularly. Check which apps have access to the microphone, camera, location, and contacts. Revoke anything that isn't clearly necessary for the app's function.
3. Turn off ad personalization. Both iOS and Android devices offer settings to limit ad tracking. Enabling these reduces the behavioral profiling tied to your child's device.
4. Use a separate email address for children's accounts. This limits cross-platform data linkage and makes it easier to close accounts later.
5. Enable safe search and content filters at the network level using your router's parental controls, not just at the device level.

For foundational concepts that apply to the whole family's digital footprint, our beginner's privacy guide is a useful starting point.

Talking to Kids About Privacy

Technical controls matter, but children who understand why privacy matters make better decisions independently. Age-appropriate conversations are more effective than rules handed down without context.

For younger children (roughly ages 6–10), focus on a simple analogy: personal information is like a home address — you share it with people you trust, not with strangers. For preteens, introduce the concept that apps are often free because the product being sold is data about users. Teenagers can handle more nuanced discussions about how profiling works and why it matters for their futures.

“The goal of privacy education for children isn't to make them afraid of the internet — it's to give them the vocabulary and judgment to navigate it on their own terms.”

— Stacey Gray, Policy counsel specializing in consumer privacy law

Avoid framing privacy conversations around fear. Instead, emphasize agency: understanding privacy gives you more control over your own story.

Building a Long-Term Family Privacy Plan

Children's digital lives evolve quickly. A plan that works for a ten-year-old will need revisiting at fourteen. Build in regular checkpoints — a quarterly review of apps, accounts, and permissions is a manageable habit.

Document which accounts your child has, what email address is linked to each, and what data each platform collects. This makes it easier to close accounts when a child outgrows a platform, and to respond quickly if a breach occurs. Many of the same principles that apply to shopping safely online apply here too — see keeping personal data safe when shopping online for overlapping best practices.

Privacy education is an ongoing conversation, not a single setting you configure once. Families that normalize checking in on digital habits — the same way they might review screen time — build children who carry those instincts into adulthood.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Data privacy laws and platform policies change frequently; consult an attorney or your child's school district for guidance specific to your situation.