FTC Expands COPPA to Cover Apps, Exempts 'Platforms' Like App Store and Google Play

Oh, this should be fun. 1000s of childless 18-25 year-olds debating whether parents should be in charge of what their children do. Too bad I don't eat popcorn, anymore.

Apple and Google are abdicating their responsibility to insure that even a modicum of our activities with their devices and apps, especially those related to minor children, are afforded any privacy protection (and they are making money hand over fist with this info-sometimes I feel like an information battery in The Matrix the way they siphon intelligence from my activity). Really shameful that Apple would argue it is not responsible for offending apps--uh, last time I checked Apple's app approval process is supposed to weed out any end runs around the rules, so to claim ignorance is pretty lame.

Get over yourself. It's YOUR job as a parent to take care of your kid. It's not Apple's job to verify the intentions of the people who create things that YOU allow into your children's hands. Are you going to complain because grocery stores still stock food that's bad for them? As for the whole "save the children" thing, learn a few things: turn the channel, don't buy them everything they want, and pay some attention to what is going on in their lives.

Whatever. Just stick the FTC on the list of s@#$ to cut to avoid the Fiscal Cliff. They're not particularly useful.

Apple and Google are abdicating their responsibility to insure that even a modicum of our activities with their devices and apps, especially those related to minor children, are afforded any privacy protection (and they are making money hand over fist with this info-sometimes I feel like an information battery in The Matrix the way they siphon intelligence from my activity). Really shameful that Apple would argue it is not responsible for offending apps--uh, last time I checked Apple's app approval process is supposed to weed out any end runs around the rules, so to claim ignorance is pretty lame.

What is shameful is people like you blaming Apple/Google instead of PARENTS who are responsible for their children's actions.

Than again when should I expect from the current state of the national filled with "everyone is responsible but me" citizens.

It's a parent's job, if they are concerned about such things, to not use apps as a substitute for family time. Do you go to a chemist with a box of cereal to verify the sugar content? No. Do you exercise reasonable caution, and assume that the company producing the cereal made it with wheat instead of rat poison? Yes. If a company has an ingredient in that cereal that isn't listed on the box, do you go and blame the grocery store for offering it? No. That would be dumb.

I always trust the ingredients label on food items, since they are required by law to be correct. (Like how children’s apps now are required to not track you)

And yes, i do blame the grocery store if they offer something which has a faulty ingredient list, since they are the ones responsible for selling it. That’s how it works in Sweden at least; we contact the retailer first instead of going directly to the manufacturer.

So it's the parents job to go through thousands of pages of code to make sure a game marketed directly to children does not collect personal data about said child?

It's a parent's job, if they are concerned about such things, to not use apps as a substitute for family time. Do you go to a chemist with a box of cereal to verify the sugar content? No. Do you exercise reasonable caution, and assume that the company producing the cereal made it with wheat instead of rat poison? Yes. If a company has an ingredient in that cereal that isn't listed on the box, do you go and blame the grocery store for offering it? No. That would be dumb.