Protecting Our Students-CIPA, COPPA, and Their Relevance to the Classroom

With how quickly the connection between technology and education…and everyday life, really…is building and evolving, one question that parents and schools have to tackle is how to keep children safe online. As most are aware, the limit to the things one can access online very well may not exist. There is great power in this fact, but also great reason for pause, because of what it means for children. As parents and teachers, I think it is vital to understand the laws that are in place, what they cover, and perhaps more importantly, what they do not.

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CIPA

The Children’s Internet Protection Act, or CIPA, is a 2000 law that was updated in 2010, and its focus is on requiring schools to protect and educate children on how to use technology safely. Makes sense-especially with how many schools have transitioned into a 1-1 model where students are given a device as an integral part of their daily educational experience, it stands to reason that schools should be educating students on how to use it appropriately. Additionally, schools must filter accessible content so that students are protected from anything obscene or harmful. Here is a great 1-page reference from the FCC that gives an overview on CIPA, while this website from the American Library Association contains a variety of resources. Finally, this resource from Common Sense Media includes additional information for schools, including CIPA-relevant lessons broken down by grade level.

Overall, as I noted above, this is a law that makes sense and feels necessary with how integrated technology has been and will continue to be in the lives of students. Children need to understand responsible use as part of a larger curriculum focused on digital citizenship-this is something that school districts are increasingly integrating with the rise in tech. However, my two main issues with CIPA are:

-It hasn’t been updated since 2010, and the degree to which education and technology’s place in it have changed since then make me feel as though there should be accounting for this within the law. Especially with the growth in tech services like AI, the requirement to teach students about this should be more specifically laid out, because of the implications of tech-created resources made possible by AI. 

-Building upon the point above, having more clarity about which aspects of being an internet user schools need to educate students on would help ensure this law is being followed with integrity. For example, many school districts may not have any set curriculum for teaching concepts like responsible use, internet safety, etc. Without set requirements that students need to learn x, y, and z at this age or by a certain grade level, there is a risk that these concepts will be forgotten.

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The expansion of AI means that CIPA may need to be re-imagined

COPPA

COPPA, or the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act, was created in 1998, and last updated in 2013. This law prevents websites from collecting personal information about users who are under the age of 13, which is why many websites require users to declare themselves to be at least of this age when they register. This law also requires websites to make users aware of which data is being collected, and include links to a compliant privacy policy. Here is a great website with easy-to-understand information about COPPA from Kiteworks.com.

Similar to CIPA, COPPA is a law with a strong purpose, and one that I feel the heart of would help protect students. However, without many restrictions in place to ensure that, for example, children under 13 cannot register for social media sites that have this limit in place, COPPA is rendered somewhat toothless. Especially with how early students are being given devices (either by schools or by parents), I feel that having added protocols to help make sure that students who register for an account are actually of that age is a necessity. I would also be interested to learn more about why the age of 13 was set as the limit-my early research attempts did not yield any clear results. A large part of me believes that the length of time before full brain development (10+ years) and just overall maturity of students at that age means 13 is too young to be able to have data collected and for parents not to have more oversight. This article references that in the European Union, this age is set 16, while in the UK it is actually 18. Honestly, the larger issue might be that ascribing a set age will be tricky no matter what, as children will mature at very different rates, and so being ‘fit’ for consent may come at much earlier/later ages between different children.

One of my main issues with COPPA, again similar to CIPA, is the length of time since it has been updated. Additionally, I feel that the ability for children to lie about their actual age, and there not being any great checkups in place to remedy when this happens, is something else that needs to be addressed. I am sure that there are protocols for what a company is meant to do if/when an account is found to be started by someone under 13, but I do not know how closely these protocols are followed-just from personal experience working with students who are 12-13, I can tell you that I know of many who have started social media accounts for themselves before celebrating their 13th birthday, and yet I have never heard of one talking about any sort of pushback from that company. As an interesting note, it appears that these concerns might be more widespread, as this article discusses a more recent push to update some aspects of COPPA as well.

Overall, I think the main takeaway for schools and teachers is that it is important to help keep students informed of their rights and responsibilities, and then for schools to have a clear plan for teaching students the skills inspired by CIPA. This, and these laws being updated to better reflect the current state of technology, would go very far in helping to ensure these laws have the impact that they are intended to.