FTC Goes After Yelp Because Yelp Has The Audacity To Let Kids Use Its App
from the wait,-what's-the-problem-exactly? dept
For years now, we’ve discussed the ridiculousness of the COPPA law (the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). The rallying cry of “protect the children!” quite frequently leads to very poor policy decisions, and COPPA (and the enforcement around it) is a perfect example of that. While there might possibly be good intentions behind the law, the practical reality is that it’s a joke. It effectively places a much larger burden on any site that allows anyone under 13 to use the site. While, in practice, it’s supposed to only apply to sites that are targeted to kids, in an attempt to avoid that, many sites put a blanket ban on those under 13. In our own terms of service we explicitly tell anyone under 13 not to register with our site. Our lawyers more or less insisted that we had to do this, and plenty of other sites do the same. So the end result is that kids under 13, who often should be using the internet, are told that they can’t use large parts of the internet — including sites that are useful to their education. But of course many of them still use the internet. They just lie about it. In fact, one researcher found that the only practical effect of the law is that it leads parents to teach their kids that it’s okay to lie. Even worse, the FTC seems entirely unconcerned about the real impact of the law — but prefers to insist that it’s really protecting children, despite no actual evidence to support this. In fact, the FTC has even pushed to expand the law.
The FTC has now gone after its latest COPPA “violator”: Yelp. According to the complaint filed against the company Yelp had the audacity to let kids under 13 register for its service via the company’s iOS and Android apps. And then? Well, I assume that the very small number of kids who did so, used the app to *gasp* find reviews on restaurants and such things. The FTC complaint doesn’t present any evidence of any actual harm here. Just the fact that it let a small number of kids register, and then didn’t meet all the checkbox requirements of “protecting the children.”
I’m honestly curious if the “consumer protection division” at the FTC thinks that kids would be better off if they were blocked from using Yelp entirely, or if they just think,”Aha, gotcha!” when they file these kinds of lawsuits?
Filed Under: apps, coppa, ftc, protect the children, under 13
Companies: yelp
Comments on “FTC Goes After Yelp Because Yelp Has The Audacity To Let Kids Use Its App”
I suspect its more a case of finding someone to target, just to show that they are enforcing the law, and so justify their own existence.
laws like COPPA are needed but they should be used wisely, not as blankets. what the FTC is doing here is trying to make itself look good to the public. the usual thing that follows this type of action is that their interference screws things up totally, putting children in danger where they weren’t before!
Re: Re:
It depends on what you mean by “laws like COPPA”. If you mean laws that protect minors from being taken advantage of, perhaps true (it depends on if the existing laws that do this somehow don’t cover internet activities).
If you actually mean “laws like COPPA”, though, I disagree. COPPA was poorly thought out, is largely unenforceable, and has a high potential for abuse. It’s pretty pointless in terms of its actual goal.
Aw Crap!
How do I un register?
I did not actually read the TOS and my b-day is not for two more weeks…
Google SUCKS!
The Federal fiscal year ends 9/30. What better time to make a show of how hard they are working to protect the children?
What we teach kids by example.
Look at our three branches of government: It’s okay to lie, cheat, steal and murder, especially for the purposes of covering your own ass for things you might have done in the past, or things you might be attacked for, regardless of whether it was wrong.
The way you get ahead is by behaving dishonorably. Pretending the world is fair only lets those who cheat take advantage of you.
Comcast: In order to get things done, lying is mandatory. e.g. they won’t let you close an account on demand. You have to tell them yours is one of their acceptable circumstances such as moving out of the country.
Honesty, integrity, respect, honor are for chumps, and the sooner our kids learn that, the better.
What did you expect?
Did you expect the FTC to go after companies with deep pockets and who own powerful legislators?
The FTC has to look like it is busy.
So who is it going to pick on?
Definitely not on big companies doing seriously bad things.
Does Yelp buy and sell, and collect and trade legislators with their friends like big companies? No?
Re: What did you expect?
Maybe Yelp should start a “Politician Review”. Might be interesting.
If you want to protect the children from something, put an age restriction on religious institutions.
I blame Free will if these kids continue to learn about freedom they will be a blight on society as we know it they will smoke the marijuana go through boxes of tissues while watching internet porn and be doing lines of cocaine off of their PS4s and Xbox .
Yelp sucks
Yelp sucks!
I am glad that someone is finally going after them.
Re: Yelp sucks
Sure is hard to feel any sympathy for Yelp.
I'll just leave this here
Yelp Is Allowed To Manipulate Ratings And Remove Good Reviews, Says Court
http://sfist.com/2014/09/04/yelp_is_allowed_to_manipulate_ratin.php
Re: I'll just leave this here
Because a company does bad things, it deserves something bad but unrelated to happen to it?
I’d rather have companies punished for their actual bad behaviour. But hey, that requires good laws and courts that aren’t insane, so what am I thinking?
Re: Re: I'll just leave this here
“Because a company does bad things, it deserves something bad but unrelated to happen to it?”
Yeah, because that’s totally what I posted.
Re: Re: Re: I'll just leave this here
Ok, I give up then – what was the point of your post exactly?
Perhaps someone is upset over the $50 no ad fee
I removed yelp links after seeing the $50 a month fee to not have ads for your competition show up when a customer searches for a your store.
Doesn't matter who controls the WH or Congress
When reading these wackadoodle stories I am led to believe the entrenched civilian bureaucracy at the federal agencies exist only to keep themselves employed. In practice this usually means making a couple of high-profile announcements per year at each agency so they have something to point to when the auditors come knocking.
Re: Doesn't matter who controls the WH or Congress
“It doesn’t matter …”
I read this sort of whining quite often, it is both childish and irresponsible. If one is too lazy to understand the issues and develop an informed opinion then they really should not attempt to influence others with their retorts whining about how things are sooooo bad and nothing can be done about it.
Do not believe these people, your vote counts. Get off the couch and go vote. Not only is it your right as a citizen, it is your responsibility.
Terms of service
How’s that supposed to work? Has it been tested in court? Contracts aren’t necessarily binding when dealing with minors. COPPA seems like a dangerous law the government could use to go after almost any site, unless they’re actually very thorough about checking ages (e.g. asking people to send government ID photographs)—unless it has some exception that makes a checkbox good enough.
"...the practical reality..."
“While there might possibly be good intentions behind the law, the practical reality is that it’s a joke.”
In light of current models for new legislation, isn’t that pretty much becoming the short definition of “law”?