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On February 25, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a policy statement that it hopes will incentivize the use of age verification technologies. According to the policy statement, the FTC will not bring Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) enforcement actions against general audience or mixed audience sites that collect, use or disclose personal information for the sole purpose of determining a user's age via age verification technologies.
As discussed during the FTC's recent workshop on age verification technologies, some age verification technologies may require the collection of personal information from children—which arguably could violate COPPA.
To avoid enforcement actions, the online service must do the following:
- Only use and disclose the collected information for age verification purposes
- Only retain the collected information as long as is necessary to verify the user's age
- Only disclose the collected information to third parties who will maintain its confidentiality
- Provide clear notice to parents regarding the information collected for age verification purposes
- Employ reasonable security safeguards for the information collection collected
- Take reasonable steps to determine that the age verification method is accurate
The FTC's policy statement may make it easier for general audience and mixed-audience sites to determine the actual age of its users. However, these services must be careful to treat any users who are determined to be under the age of 13 as children under COPPA. If they don't, this policy statement will not stop the FTC from bringing a COPPA enforcement action against them.
“Age verification technologies are some of the most child-protective technologies to emerge in decades,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Our statement incentivizes operators to use these innovative tools, empowering parents to protect their children online.”
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