COPPA Compliance Redaction

The Children\'s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) establishes special requirements for protecting personal information collected from children under 13. Enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, COPPA applies to websites, mobile apps, games, and online services that are either directed at children or have actual knowledge of collecting personal information from children. Violations can result in significant civil penalties—the FTC has assessed fines exceeding $150 million in recent enforcement actions.

Automated redaction supports COPPA compliance by detecting the specific categories of personal information the law protects, enabling data minimization, and supporting deletion requirements when parental consent is withdrawn. Whether you operate a child-directed service or need to handle children\'s data that inadvertently enters your systems, intelligent PII detection helps maintain compliance.

COPPA-Protected Information

COPPA defines specific categories of personal information:

Contact Information:

• First and last name
• Home or physical address including street and city
• Email address
• Telephone number

Online Identifiers:

• Screen name or username permitting direct contact
• Persistent identifiers used for behavioral tracking (cookies, device IDs)
• Instant messaging identifiers

Other Protected Data:

• Social Security number
• Photo, video, or audio containing child\'s image or voice
• Geolocation information sufficient to identify street name and city
• Any information combined with the above categories

Child-Specific Detection

Detecting personal information in child-generated content:

Common Child PII Patterns:

// Children often share information freely
"My name is Emma and I'm 8 years old"
"I go to Lincoln Elementary School"
"My mom's phone number is 555-1234"
"I live at 123 Maple Street"

// Screen names with identifying info
"Emma2015NYC" → Name (Emma), Birth year (2015), Location (NYC)
"JakeSmith10" → Name (Jake Smith), Age (10)

// Parent/guardian information shared by child
"My mom is Sarah Johnson"
"Call my dad at 555-9876"

Age Indicators:

// Detecting indicators child may be under 13
Age statements: "I'm 8", "10 years old", "born in 2016"
Grade levels: "I'm in 3rd grade", "5th grader"
School names: Elementary schools typically serve under-13
Birth years: Calculating age from year of birth

// Context analysis
"I'm not old enough to sign up myself"
"My parent helped me make this account"

School Information Detection

School references often appear in child-related data:

// School name detection
"I go to Lincoln Elementary School"
"My school is PS 234"
"I attend Jefferson Middle School" (may have under-13 students)

// School-related PII
Teacher names: "My teacher is Mrs. Johnson"
Classroom identifiers: "I'm in Room 203"
Grade/class: "I'm in 3rd grade Class B"
School events: "Soccer practice at school at 3pm"

// Combined with location enables identification
"Lincoln Elementary in Springfield"

Screen Name Analysis

Screen names and usernames often contain PII:

// Analyzing screen names for embedded PII
Pattern: [Name][BirthYear][Location]

Examples:
"EmmaBrown2015" → Name: Emma Brown, Birth year: 2015 (age ~9)
"JakeMiami" → Name: Jake, Location: Miami
"SoccerStar123" → Interest (soccer) but no direct PII
"MrsBrownsClass" → Teacher name

// Detection approach:
1. Parse username for name patterns
2. Check for numeric years (birth year)
3. Match against location databases
4. Flag usernames revealing child identity

Geolocation Handling

COPPA specifically restricts location data:

// Geolocation sufficient to identify city/street
Precise coordinates: 40.7128° N, 74.0060° W → [GEOLOCATION]
Street-level: "123 Main Street, Springfield" → [ADDRESS]
City-level: "Springfield, IL" → May be retained depending on use

// Handling options:
- Full redaction: Remove all location data
- Generalization: "Springfield, IL" → "Illinois" or "Midwest US"
- Purpose-limited: Retain for service functionality, redact for analytics

// Photo geolocation (EXIF data)
- Extract and remove GPS coordinates from images
- Option to blur map markers in screenshots

Photo and Video Processing

Media files containing children\'s image or voice:

// Image processing for child photos
1. Face detection (identifies presence of faces)
2. Metadata extraction (remove EXIF PII)
3. Text/watermark detection (names on photos)
4. Context analysis (school photos, uniforms)

// Redaction options:
- Face blurring (preserve image, anonymize face)
- Full redaction (remove image entirely)
- Metadata stripping (remove identifying EXIF data)

// Audio/video processing
1. Speech-to-text extraction
2. PII detection in transcript
3. Voice pattern analysis (optional)
4. Background content analysis

// Audio redaction:
- Bleep/silence PII mentions
- Remove audio track
- Transcribe and provide redacted text

Persistent Identifier Handling

COPPA restricts behavioral tracking of children:

// Persistent identifiers to detect/redact
Device IDs: "device_id": "abc123xyz789"
Advertising IDs: IDFA (iOS), GAID (Android)
Cookie values: "session_id=xyz; tracking_id=abc"
Browser fingerprints: Various technical identifiers

// Handling for COPPA compliance:
- Detect persistent IDs in collected data
- Remove or hash identifiers
- Flag data with tracking identifiers for review

// API configuration
{
  "redaction_types": ["persistent_identifiers"],
  "options": {
    "detect_device_ids": true,
    "detect_advertising_ids": true,
    "detect_cookie_values": true
  }
}

COPPA Compliance Scenarios

Child-Directed Services:

// For websites/apps directed at children under 13

Data collection workflow:
1. Collect only necessary data
2. Obtain verifiable parental consent before collection
3. If collecting without consent, detect and redact PII
4. Store minimal data, redacted where possible
5. Support parental review and deletion requests

Redaction use cases:
- Anonymize user-generated content (posts, comments)
- Process support tickets removing child PII
- Prepare analytics data without personal information
- Handle parental deletion requests

General Audience Services:

// For services that may inadvertently collect child data

Detection workflow:
1. Monitor for age indicators in submissions
2. When under-13 detected, flag for review
3. Apply COPPA-specific redaction rules
4. Delete/redact data if parental consent not obtainable

Example triggers:
- User enters birth year suggesting age < 13
- User states age under 13 in content
- Parent contacts regarding child's account

EdTech Services:

// Educational technology serving children

School-authorized use:
- Consent obtained via school (school official exception)
- Still must protect data and limit use
- Redaction for any sharing beyond education purpose

Data handling:
- Redact PII from learning analytics
- Protect student work samples shared as examples
- Remove PII from exported data
- Support FERPA deletion alongside COPPA

Parental Request Support

COPPA grants parents rights over children\'s data:

// Right to review child's personal information
Export workflow:
1. Verify parent identity
2. Compile all data related to child
3. Redact third-party PII (other children)
4. Provide human-readable format

// Right to delete child's personal information
Deletion workflow:
1. Identify all data locations
2. Delete personal information
3. Retain redacted analytics if needed
4. Document deletion for compliance

// Right to refuse further collection
Account modification:
1. Flag account for no-PII collection
2. Apply redaction to future submissions
3. Disable features requiring PII

Safe Harbor Program Support

Documentation for FTC-approved safe harbor programs:

// Audit documentation
{
  "organization": "Example Kids App",
  "reporting_period": "2024-01",
  "data_processing": {
    "records_processed": 45000,
    "pii_detected": 1250,
    "pii_redacted": 1250,
    "categories": {
      "names": 450,
      "emails": 200,
      "school_info": 350,
      "location": 150,
      "age_indicators": 100
    }
  },
  "compliance_measures": {
    "parental_consent_verified": true,
    "data_minimization_applied": true,
    "deletion_requests_processed": 23
  }
}

API Configuration

POST /v1/redact
{
  "text": "Hi my name is Emma and I'm 8 years old. I go to Lincoln Elementary School.",
  "compliance": ["COPPA"],
  "redaction_types": [
    "child_name",
    "age",
    "school_name",
    "address",
    "phone",
    "email",
    "screen_name",
    "parent_info"
  ],
  "options": {
    "detect_age_indicators": true,
    "school_name_detection": true
  }
}

Response:
{
  "redacted_text": "Hi my name is [NAME] and I'm [AGE] years old. I go to [SCHOOL_NAME].",
  "detections": [
    {
      "type": "child_name",
      "value": "Emma",
      "confidence": 0.92
    },
    {
      "type": "age",
      "value": "8",
      "indicates_under_13": true,
      "confidence": 0.99
    },
    {
      "type": "school_name",
      "value": "Lincoln Elementary School",
      "school_type": "elementary",
      "confidence": 0.95
    }
  ],
  "compliance_flags": {
    "coppa_applicable": true,
    "under_13_indicators": ["explicit_age_statement", "elementary_school"]
  }
}