Advertising Law Tool Kit - Tenth Edition | 2022

40 / Venable Marketing to Children When marketing to children under the age of 13, there are heightened requirements that go beyond standard truth in advertising and fair advertising practices. Both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB) monitor and review advertising that targets children for unfair and deceptive practices. CARU sets forth specific guidelines for ads shown on children’s television, in children’s publications, and on websites with content directed to children. The basic idea behind these standards is that children have a difficult time understanding that they are being given a sales pitch and distinguishing between reality and fantasy. For these reasons, claims need to be narrowly tailored and very clear, in language children can understand, without preying on their potential vulnerability or naivete. There is also an additional self-regulatory group that is part of the BBB, the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. CFBAI participants voluntarily commit that either they will not advertise foods and beverages to children under age 12 at all, or they will advertise only products that meet certain strict criteria. Both the FTC and CARU monitor and enforce compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires that marketers seeking to collect personally identifiable information (PII) from children under 13 must first obtain verifiable parental consent. Recently, however, laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have increased to 16 the age at which a company must seek parental consent before collecting data from children in those jurisdictions. Melissa Landau Steinman mlsteinman@Venable.com +1 202.344.4972