• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, July 16, 2014

The Federal Trade Commission today published new guidance that could make it easier for developers to create apps aimed at children.

Specifically, the FTC is making it easier for app developers to obtain parental approval for data collection. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act prohibits app developers and Web site operators from knowingly collecting personal information -- which now includes information like device identifiers and IP addresses -- from children under 13, without their parents' consent.

In the past, one method for obtaining consent was to ask for a credit card and then assess a small charge (which could later be refunded). Now, however, the FTC says in a new “Frequently Asked Questions” that companies don't necessarily need to actually engage in a monetary transaction to verify identity via a credit card. Instead, they could collect the financial information and pair it with other reliable data. “For example,” the FTC advises, “you could supplement the request for credit card information with special questions to which only parents would know the answer and find supplemental ways to contact the parent.”

The FTC also said today that developers can use app stores like the ones run by Apple or Amazon to obtain parental consent -- provided the app stores take steps to insure that they're not being duped by children impersonating their parents. The FTC adds: “The mere entry of an app store account number or password, without other indicia of reliability (e.g., knowledge-based authentication questions or verification of government identification), does not provide sufficient assurance that the person entering the account or password information is the parent, and not the child.”

Even with those restrictions, app developers are cheering the FTC's move. "Today’s action by the FTC gives platforms and app makers more guidance in areas where confusion has persisted," Morgan Reed, executive director of the developers' group ACT|The App Association said in a statement. “We expect innovation and investment in children’s education apps to grow markedly.”