Meador: Section 5, COPPA Are Best FTC Authorities to Protect Kids Online
FTC Commissioner Mark Meador sees Section 5 of the FTC Act and COPPA as the best statutory authorities for the commission to protect children online, the Republican told the Monopoly Report during a podcast aired Wednesday. But Section 6(b) of the FTC Act is a unique tool to better understand modern data practices, he said.
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Meador, who joined the agency in April, was asked to discuss the best policies and regulations for protecting children and teens, with regard to data collection and addictive design features. Meador highlighted Section 5 authority against unfair or deceptive acts and practices (UDAP) first, saying it gives the agency “pretty wide latitude.” The FTC in September filed Section 5 and COPPA claims against Sendit for allegedly collecting children’s data without consent and deceiving users with messages from fake people (see 2509300054). COPPA carries separate, key authorities for protecting children, said Meador.
The FTC should first look to enforce existing statutes, but Section 6(b) provides additional leverage in allowing the agency to conduct non-law enforcement studies. He discussed the agency’s 6(b) study exploring COPPA compliance related to AI chatbot interactions with young users (see 2509110068).
“We can actually get documents, testimony and information from companies so that we can understand new markets, new technology, how these industries operate,” he said. However, he emphasized there are strict rules against using data collected in 6(b) studies for law enforcement purposes.
Instead, the data is intended to inform FTC staff and economists, as well as Congress through publicly shared reports, he said. Lawmakers can use this information when legislating and trying to fill regulatory gaps.
Conducting a 6(b) study is one of the best things the FTC can do to “really make sure we know the lay of the land before we start going after investigations and bringing law enforcement actions,” he said. Chatbot interaction with children is the “driving force” behind the current study, he said, because it’s a topic attracting “a lot of concern.”
On children’s data privacy, “be very careful about how you handle that,” he said. Businesses are trying to make money and succeed, but when it comes to minors, “we need to view them as not mere consumers,” he continued. “We shouldn’t be viewing American children as a source of data to be monetized but as a population to be protected” so they can grow into informed adults. Companies shouldn’t be “robbing” them of that future, said Meador, a father of seven.
Data privacy is an issue that falls under the Trump administration’s overarching mission of making “life easier for the average American citizen,” he said: Privacy and kids online safety are “huge component[s]” of that.
He highlighted the FTC’s upcoming Jan. 28 workshop on age-verification technology (see 2512080049). Meador said he hopes there will be discussion on important questions, such as extending the age of COPPA. The latter is a legislative priority for authors of the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), which Congress is debating (see 2512110057).