Under the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) requirements implementing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), websites and services directed at children must obtain verifiable parental consent to the collection of personal information from children.

The rules took effect in 2000, and upon conclusion of a review it launched in April 2005, the FTC decided not to change them.

But what it means to be “online” has changed drastically since the late 1990s when the FTC drafted COPPA definitions. Facebook didn't yet exist, for example—now it's hard to find a website that doesn't offer an easy link to share something on Facebook, Twitter or other social-networking sites. PDAs and flip-phones have given way to a new generation of easy-to-use touchscreen smartphones and the attendant mobile applications.