ESRB Privacy Certified

Our SVP, Stacy Feuer, will be speaking at the Video Game Bar Association's 12th Annual Summit next week on a panel about protecting the privacy and safety of kids and teens in video games. Check out her post, below, for more info.

During last week’s total solar eclipse, the sun, moon, and earth aligned perfectly in what’s known as syzygy. Will we see a similar alignment in favor a comprehensive federal privacy law? Read our SVP Stacy Feuer’s analysis of the proposed American Privacy Rights Act of 2024 (APRA) and what it could mean from a privacy compliance and certification perspective. https://bit.ly/4de0L2q #privacy #APRA

We had a great week in DC at IAPP - International Association of Privacy Professionals #GPS24. We attended many interesting (and useful) talks and panels, met up with program members and friends, and collected some great swag. Check out the pics from Stacy’s workshop on kids’and teens’ privacy, the closing session main stage area, and our best “gift” - a complementary copy of Kashmir Hill’s new book inscribed to ESRB Privacy Certified (with the corrected video game-inspired title).

We are excited to begin our new partnership with Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz to help video game industry members comply with privacy laws and best practices.

VPC Update: We are disappointed that, on Friday afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) declined to either issue a substantive decision or delay further ruling on our pending application for authorization of Privacy-Protective Facial Age Estimation as a verifiable parental consent method under the COPPA Rule. We filed the application, together with Yoti and Kids Web Services, in June 2023. The Commission twice extended its decision on the application beyond the 120-day period set forth in the COPPA Rule. The Commission’s letter denying the application indicates that the FTC believes it would be helpful to be able to review, as part of its decision-making process, a report about facial age estimation models that is anticipated to be released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in April. Unfortunately, instead of accommodating our request to stay its decision for another 90 days to give the Commission sufficient time for consideration of the NIST report, the FTC declined the application without prejudice. In light of the FTC’s statements in its recent COPPA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (and elsewhere) welcoming innovation in VPC methods, we remain hopeful that facial age estimation and other innovative technologies will be considered COPPA-compliant when used to obtain verifiable parental consent in the near future.

Next week, our SVP Stacy Feuer will join Hogan Lovells' Sophie Baum, Epic Games’ Shanna Pearce, and the Future of Privacy Forum’s Bailey Sanchez and Jim Siegl, CIPT, CIPM for an in-depth dive into “The State of Play: Compliance with Kids and Teens Privacy Law” during a workshop at #IAPP’s Global Privacy Summit. Our team — Courtney C., Peter Dietrich, Majied Matthews jr., Preston Taylor and Meghan Ventura — will attend #GPS24, too, keeping us up to date with the latest privacy developments and emerging trends. We hope to see you in DC!

Sharing some great advice on keeping your kids - and their personal information - safe by ESRB President Patricia Vance on this #SaferInternetDay!

As a longstanding FTC-authorized COPPA Safe Harbor program, we follow the agency’s COPPA work closely. We’ve delved into the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to understand what it will mean for our member video game and toy companies – and for the millions of kids and teens (and their parents) that play games. Read our summary of the most important provisions from the 164-page NRPM document here: https://bit.ly/3vpMnmi. #coppa #privacy

On Tuesday, we predicted that “the year ahead is the make-or-break time for the FTC to issue proposed new rules on kids’ (and teens’) privacy.” On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission proved us right on substance and wrong on timing. Yesterday -- more than four years after it kicked off its review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (#COPPA Rule) in 2019 – the FTC proposed significant changes to the COPPA Rule that would “place new restrictions on the use and disclosure of children’s personal information and further limit the ability of companies to condition access to services on monetizing children’s data.” The details are in the proposed text of the 164-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which will shortly be published in the Federal Register. Guess we now have our “vacation reading” teed up! Happy Holidays! We'll be back with some analysis and thoughts on the NPRM in the New Year. https://lnkd.in/eW3UNBfa

Sharing some important advice from our Family Gaming Guide about protecting your kids' data - and their privacy and safety - online + a new video that illustrates our tips in a fun and creative way!