Children’s Online Privacy and Safety: State Laws, Age-Appropriate Design, and Emerging Compliance Trends Beyond COPPA

This piece from authors Laura Riposo VanDruff & Alysa Z. Hutnik (Kelley Drye) explores the growing regulatory push to protect children’s privacy and safety as digital platforms become deeply embedded in young people’s daily lives. Policymakers are moving beyond COPPA’s under-13 framework, driven by concerns over social media, gaming environments, chatbots, and the rise of new age-estimation technologies that are reshaping expectations for responsible design. In response, a bipartisan wave of states is extending privacy protections to teens, creating a complex patchwork of rules that companies must navigate.

The authors outline several major fronts in this evolving landscape. States are advancing Age-Appropriate Design Codes modeled on California’s initiative—even as enforcement faces court challenges—and imposing new requirements on social media platforms that restrict minors’ access and mandate parental consent. California’s recently enacted Digital Age Assurance Act marks a notable shift by placing responsibility on operating systems to generate age signals that app developers must honor, effectively giving developers “actual knowledge” of users’ ages and triggering additional privacy obligations.

At the federal level, Congress is considering children’s online safety legislation, though political gridlock makes progress uncertain. Meanwhile, litigation against companies such as Roblox and Roku highlights the growing legal risks for platforms that fail to protect young users. Regulators in the U.S. and abroad are also coordinating more closely, with new initiatives focused on promoting safer design, increasing information-sharing, and improving parental tools—signaling a heightened, collective commitment to strengthening online protections for children…

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