Dive summary:
- In an effort to help companies comply with the updates to Children's Online Privacy Protection (Coppa), the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a group that manages self-regulation for privacy concerns in video games, has expanded its program to include mobile apps.
- ESRB is comprised of 25 member companies and has been working on the expanded program for nine months in anticipation of the privacy rule changes on July 1.
- The biggest challenge the ESRB faced was finding a way to get parental consent on mobile games without users having to wait 24 hours for approval; the agency turned to Veratad which offers real time age and identity verification.
From the article:
"'Privacy protection is an imperative, especially when kids are involved. But achieving compliance with requirements like Coppa can be complicated, particularly for rapidly evolving platforms like mobile,' said Dona Fraser, vp of ESRB Privacy Certified (the name of the program). Companies that comply with ESRB Privacy Certified are allowed to display a seal on the game signifying that the mobile app complies with mobile privacy standards and best practices."