What It Is

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a U.S. federal regulation enacted in 1998, effective 2000, and amended in 2013. Administered by the FTC, it protects children under 13 from unauthorized personal data collection by commercial websites, apps, and IoT devices. It mandates verifiable parental consent and employs a parent-control, data-minimization approach.

Key Components

• **Verifiable Parental Consent (VPC)11+ methods like credit cards, video calls.
• Broad **personal informationNames, persistent IDs, street-level geolocation, audio/video files.
• Operator duties: Privacy notices, data security, parental review/deletion rights.
• Scope: Child-directed services or actual knowledge of child users.
• FTC enforcement with $43,792 per-violation penalties; safe harbors available.

Why Organizations Use It

• Ensures legal compliance avoiding fines like YouTube's $170M.
• Mitigates privacy risks and lawsuits.
• Builds parental trust in edtech, gaming sectors.
• Enables global market access targeting U.S. children.

Implementation Overview

• Analyze child-appeal, post policies, deploy age gates/VPC.
• Secure data, minimize collection.
• Applies to all sizes, worldwide if U.S.-focused.
• No certification but FTC/safe harbor audits recommended.

What It Is

ISO 31000:2018, Risk management — Guidelines is an international standard providing a principles-based framework for managing risk. It defines risk as the effect of uncertainty on objectives, applicable across sectors, sizes, and geographies. The approach emphasizes systematic identification, analysis, evaluation, treatment, monitoring, and review.

Key Components

• Eight core **principlesintegrated, structured, customized, inclusive, dynamic, best information, human factors, continual improvement.
• Framework (Clause 5): leadership, integration, design, implementation, evaluation, improvement.
• Process (Clause 6): communication, context/criteria, assessment, treatment, monitoring, recording.
• Non-certifiable; no fixed controls, focuses on tailored governance.

Why Organizations Use It

Enhances decision-making, resilience, and value creation. Addresses regulatory benchmarks, reduces losses, builds stakeholder trust. Provides competitive edge via risk-informed strategy, operational efficiency, and innovation support.

Implementation Overview

Phased approach: diagnose/design, build/deploy, operate/optimize, institutionalize. Involves policy, training, tools, integration into processes. Suited for all organizations; no certification, internal audits suffice. (178 words)