FTC Delays Decision on Proposal Under COPPA Rule

Parents and companies will have to wait a few more weeks before learning whether facial recognition technology can be used to verify parental consent under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The Federal Trade Commission announced on October 23 that it will delay until November 18 its decision on whether to approve a new verifiable parental consent method proposed by Riyo, Inc. under the COPPA Rule. Riyo’s proposed mechanism would let parents give the verifiable parental consent required under COPPA to entities through a two-step facial recognition process.

The FTC’s announcement simply stated that the delay was made at Riyo’s request. It is unclear whether Riyo’s request for a delay was made in the effort to address any of the comments the FTC received during the comment period, which closed on September 3.

The COPPA Rule permits entities to submit and seek FTC approval of new methods for obtaining verifiable parental consent not currently permitted by the Rule. The FTC has approved only one new verifiable consent method under the Rule, which uses a knowledge-based authentication system to pose challenge questions for parents to use to verify their identity.