Published: February 3, 2026
Photo from RDNE Stock project via Pexels
By Michaela Gordoni
The Federal Trade Commission will crack down on kids’ online age verification tools.
“Age verification offers a way to unleash American innovation without compromising the health and well-being of America’s most important resource, its children. It’s a tool that empowers rather than replaces America’s parents,” said Commissioner Mark Meador at a public workshop last week.
The agency plans to amend the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson said, “The internet we encounter today does not look like one even modestly influenced by the choices of parents with small children,” and the agency should “push COPPA as far as we legally can to protect kids.”
The last COPPA amendment was implemented in January 2025, Ad Exchanger reported.
Related: FTC Investigating TikTok for Violating Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, Sources Claim
Former White House chief information officer Theresa Payton told Fox News, “In today’s construct [children] will make up a birth date. If you ask, ‘Show me a picture to show me you’re old enough,’ they could hold up their older brother’s or older sister’s picture. So we know that age verification has to be something that is easy to do, hard to work around, and we certainly don’t want to collect a lot of personal identifiable information that could be hacked.”
It’s not easy to meet those conditions, but Payton is highly optimistic that more advanced technology will be available soon.
“One of the things they are talking about is how can we create an age verification that leverages artificial intelligence but doesn’t necessarily store the biometrics of the children, so it’s one of those things where… I’m looking for different indicators. I’m going to look for proof of life but also proof of age.”
When the criteria are met, the data should not be stored.
“Once you have what you need, you may say they’re age-identified, versus collecting and storing that biometric and that personal identifiable information,” Payton said.
This would significantly allay privacy concerns.
“You don’t want to be collecting everything about these children,” she continued. “We see what happened to Discord. They were collecting passports and other legal documents and had a third party have a problem, and data leaked.”
The former officer believes children don’t need social media and should at least be age 14 to use it.
She added, “I always say to parents, you know your kids best. You know their true social maturity and whether or not this is going to be right for them.”
It’s not 100% certain that COPPA will be amended or when, but it seems very likely to happen. If it follows the pacing of its last workshop, then a change could come in January 2027.
Read Next: FTC Can Reopen Child Privacy Investigation Against Meta
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