What It Is

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a U.S. federal regulation enacted in 1998, effective 2000, enforced by the FTC. It protects children under 13 from unauthorized online data collection by commercial websites, apps, and services directed to kids or with actual knowledge of child users. Core approach: parental empowerment through verifiable parental consent (VPC) before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information.

Key Components

• **VPC mechanisms11+ methods like credit card verification, video calls.
• **Privacy noticesComprehensive policies detailing data practices.
• **Parental rightsAccess, review, deletion, and revocation.
• **Data rulesMinimization, security, no conditioning on collection.
• **Broad PIINames, addresses, persistent IDs, geolocation, multimedia. Compliance via direct adherence or FTC-approved safe harbors.

Why Organizations Use It

Avoids severe FTC penalties ($43,792/violation; e.g., YouTube $170M fine). Meets legal obligations for child-facing businesses globally targeting U.S. kids. Enhances trust, reduces breach risks, supports edtech/gaming amid rising enforcement.

Implementation Overview

Assess child appeal, post notices, deploy age screens/VPC, secure data. Applies to operators worldwide; suitable for apps, sites, IoT. Key steps: policy drafting, tech integration, audits. Typical for small-to-enterprise; 6-12 months with tools like generators.

What It Is

NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards are mandatory reliability regulations developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. They protect the Bulk Electric System (BES) from cyber and physical threats that could cause misoperation or instability. The approach is risk-based, tiering controls by High, Medium, or Low impact BES Cyber Systems.

Key Components

• Core standards: CIP-002 (scoping) to CIP-014 (supply chain/physical security).
• Pillars: asset identification, governance, perimeters (CIP-005/006), system security (CIP-007), incident response/recovery (CIP-008/009), configuration management (CIP-010).
• ~45 detailed requirements with recurring cycles (e.g., 15/35-day reviews).
• Compliance via annual audits, evidence retention (3 years), enforced by FERC.

Why Organizations Use It

• Legal mandate for BES owners/operators (utilities, generators).
• Mitigates outages, fines (up to $1M+ per violation), reputational damage.
• Enhances resilience, operational efficiency, insurance benefits.
• Builds stakeholder trust in North America.

Implementation Overview

Phased: scoping, gap analysis, controls, testing, audits. Applies to utilities/transmission entities in US/Canada/Mexico. Involves OT/IT integration, documentation, training; multi-year for maturity.