ANA Opposes Proposed Restrictions On Behavioral Advertising To Children

The ad industry is opposing a Federal Trade Commission proposal that would effectively require website and app operators to obtain opt-in consent from parents at least twice before serving behaviorally targeted ads to children under the age of 13.

“Unnecessary and overly burdensome parental consent requirements hinder children’s access to online products and services,” the Association of National Advertisers said Monday in comments filed with the agency. “Burdensome requirements cause consent fatigue rather than providing parents with meaningful control over personal information associated with children.”

The comments come in response to the FTC's December proposal to update regulations that implement the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act -- a 24-year-old law that prohibits web companies from knowingly collecting "personal information" from young children without their parents' permission.

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The regulations were last updated in 2013, when the FTC said the term “personal information” includes not only names, addresses and phone numbers, but also “unique identifiers” that can link the children's activity across more than one site or app -- such as tracking cookies, device serial numbers and, in some cases, IP addresses. That update effectively required companies to obtain opt-in consent from parents before sending children behaviorally targeted ads -- meaning ads selected based on data about children's activity across sites or apps.

The revisions proposed last year would further restrict behavioral advertising by requiring a double opt-in from parents. First, web companies to obtain parents' consent to collect children's personal data, including data stored in cookies or other pseudonymous identifiers. Next, companies would have to separately obtain parents' consent before sharing that data in order to serve children with behaviorally targeted ads.

That proposal for a second opt-in “is unnecessary and merely creates additional work for parents,” the Association of National Advertisers writes.

The group also urged the FTC to continue allowing companies to use children's unique identifiers for contextual advertising -- broadly meaning ads served based on content users are viewing at the time.

Currently, the agency doesn't require companies to obtain parental permission before drawing on unique identifiers for contextual ads. Last year, when the FTC proposed the revisions, it sought comments from the public about rules regarding contextual advertising.

“Given the sophistication of contextual advertising today, including that personal information collected from users may be used to enable companies to target even contextual advertising to some extent, should the Commission consider changes to the Rule's treatment of contextual advertising?” the agency asked in its proposal.

The Association of National Advertisers did praise some aspects of the FTC's proposal, including the agency's decision not to impose a “constructive” knowledge standard on website operators. That standard would have required companies to obtain parental consent when they should know a user is under 13. Instead, the FTC said it would continue to apply the “actual knowledge” standard, which only requires companies to obtain parental consent if they actually know a user is under 13, or when a user is on a website or app directed to children. (The FTC also says an operator of a site aimed at a general audience has “actual knowledge” of a child's age if it “willfully disregards the fact that a particular user is a child.”)

“The FTC’s intention to ... reject a 'constructive knowledge' standard aligns with the text and intent of the law,” the ad organization wrote.

1 comment about "ANA Opposes Proposed Restrictions On Behavioral Advertising To Children".
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  1. John Grono from GAP Research, March 12, 2024 at 10:30 p.m.

    Yes Wendy.

    How dare parents think they know what is best for their kids and better than an advertiser.   Shame on the parents.

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