Example Of Essay On Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) both provide protections for children accessing information from the internet that may have a negative impact on their life. COPPA is enforced by the United States trade commission. It ensures websites that need information on children below 13 years consult the guardians of the child. COPPA prevents websites from requiring any personal information as well as ensuring that parents provide a proper guidance on the internet services that their children access. It also protects private conversations such as data from schools and classroom chats.
COPPA provides privacy protection of children information by providing links where any website requiring private information of children must either receive an email of verification of age or permission from the parent of the child. CIPA, on the other hand, protects children from accessing obscene or harmful content from the Internet. It requires schools and library to ensure that they have Internet safety policy that prevents or blocks Internet access to pornography, obscene acts or any material that may be harmful to children. CIPA ensure that schools and library have an internet program that monitors all the online activities of children.
Both COPPA and CIPA have common similarities which channel in protecting minors from accessing harmful and obscene behavior from the internet. In addition, they both prevent information of minors from being accessed by any unauthorized website user. They both ensure that any website that requires details of minors has to request permission from the guardians or the parents of the minor. Both COPPA and CIPA provide minor’s guideline on the website viewed minors. They both restrict the freedom of children and not adults.
Difference between COPPA and CIPA is that COPPA involves regulations that protect children below the age of 13 years while CIPA provides regulations that protect children below the age of 17 years. Another different between COPPA and CIPA is that CIPA is more involved in regulating obscene and pornographic access by children while using schools and library internet services. COPPA, on the other hand, regulates access to private information of minors in any website. COPPA does not regulate access to information of minors from schools and library websites.
The reason, why there are two different acts, that is COPPA and CIPA, is to ensure that both the minors are protected from Obscene and harmful scenes of pornographic from the internet harm the children. Both acts are important because they ensure there are proper parental/ guardian's consultancy before minor’s information is given out. On top of that, they contribute to providing regulations that prevent children from wasting a lot of time in viewing materials which are harmful. This has assisted in building a morally upright future society.
One of the most challenging element that hinders COPPA and CIPA from fulfilling their goals involve the following. First, there are a lot of computer hackers who can hack the website codes of COPPA and CIPA. The hackers can then view any unauthorized information of any minor they want. Another major problem is the desire by minor to view what they are restricted. The minors watch pornography and other harmful, obscene scene from the internet by using different website which do not comply with the rules and regulations set by COPPA and CIPA. Another challenge to the two acts is that, they are only applicable on websites which are within United States of America. This makes it easier for minors to be able to access the restricted harmful websites and view obscene acts from internet. They use social networks which don’t abide by the rules of COPPA and CIPA such as what’s up, vibe and messenger.
The reasons why COPPA and CIPA have different protection ages, is because COPPA protects information of minors who are below 13 years and have few legal identifications. COPPA protects information of minor below 13 years from being accessed or used on any website without the consent of the parent or guardian. CIPA provides protection of minors below 17 years from accessing pornography hand obscene scenes in schools and public libraries. The difference in age is because information about teenagers above the age of 14 can be found on social networks without the consent of guardians. However, these teenagers will still be restricted by CIPA from access pornographic and unauthorized websites.
COPPA and CIPA face opposition from different organizations which have even filed cases against them. For instance, the American Library and federal to read foundation is one of the organizations that filed a lawsuit against CIPA. The organization wanted CIPA to overturn, but the supreme court of America declined the lawsuit in argument that CIPA is constitutional for children, and it does not affect the freedom of adult. Both CIPA and COPPA are facing strong oppositions from social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google. The social websites companies are complaining in response to the children online privacy protection act which was enacted on 1998(COPPA). The firm argues that COPA should not be a barrier to children’s ability to access appropriate and beneficial online resource. The claim is that the law was enacted when children did not own or possess smartphones. In the future, these firms would not be charged for neglecting the FTCs rules because the FTC is aiming at finalizing new rules.

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