If you own or operate a website, you’re probably already familiar with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).  This law, passed in 1998, requires that the operators of websites used by children under the age of 13 take precautionary measures to ensure the privacy of those children.  After 15 years of existence, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced new COPPA compliance rules that will go into effect beginning on July 1, 2013.

These rule changes may affect you in two ways.  First, if you run a website that was not subject to COPPA under the old rules, you will need to take another look at your site to determine whether the new rules bring it into scope.  Second, if you run a website that was already subject to COPPA, you may have new compliance obligations.  In this tip, we take a look at both of these issues.