Changes to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) came into effect on July 1st, 2013. These changes may affect your use of Google's advertising products.
The changes concern web pages and services directed at children under the age of 13 years. They also affect general audience websites with users known to be under 13.
If you are using Google's advertising products, your contract requires that you do so in compliance with all applicable privacy laws, including the new COPPA rules.
Consequently, you must not, for example, use our products to create remarketing lists or serve interest-based advertisements on child-directed content. Please also consider carefully your use of features such as key-values and Data Transfer. While we cannot advise you on the nature of your duties under these rules, we do recommend that you read the FTC’s guidance and consult with your own legal counsel.
Google has developed systems and controls that take steps to prevent user list creation and targeting on pages and apps that have been identified to us as child-directed. Where we know that pages are child-directed, we will not show identifiers in Data Transfer files. If you use any Google products in connection with such content, you must notify Google using our Search Console.
These systems and controls are not infallible. For example, Google does not always know the URLs of the pages on which a customer’s tags are placed, nor does it share the level of knowledge about end users that some publishers may have. Please remember that Google's tools are designed to facilitate compliance and do not relieve any particular advertiser or publisher of its obligations under the law. Consequently, it is the responsibility of every customer to be vigilant in ensuring the lawful use of our products.
If you are a YouTube Partner Seller, learn more about YouTube's policies for advertising to Google Accounts for children under 13 (or the applicable age in your country).