FTC Goes After Yelp Because Yelp Has The Audacity To Let Kids Use Its App

from the wait,-what's-the-problem-exactly? dept

Wed, Sep 17th 2014 1:34pm — Mike Masnick

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?

FTC v Yelp (PDF)FTC v Yelp (Text)

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: apps, coppa, ftc, protect the children, under 13
Companies: yelp

21 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 17 Sep 2014 @ 1:44pm

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Sep 2014 @ 1:47pm

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!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fake Out Of The Blue (profile), 17 Sep 2014 @ 1:50pm

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!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris ODonnell (profile), 17 Sep 2014 @ 1:52pm

The Federal fiscal year ends 9/30. What better time to make a show of how hard they are working to protect the children?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Uriel-238 (profile), 17 Sep 2014 @ 2:04pm

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DannyB (profile), 17 Sep 2014 @ 2:07pm

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?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PRMan, 17 Sep 2014 @ 3:14pm

Re: What did you expect?
Maybe Yelp should start a "Politician Review". Might be interesting.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Fenderson (profile), 17 Sep 2014 @ 3:32pm

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Irving, 17 Sep 2014 @ 3:57pm

If you want to protect the children from something, put an age restriction on religious institutions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Sep 2014 @ 4:02pm

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 .
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Greg, 17 Sep 2014 @ 4:03pm

Yelp sucks
Yelp sucks!

I am glad that someone is finally going after them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Sep 2014 @ 4:43pm

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
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Sep 2014 @ 6:02pm

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?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pixelation, 17 Sep 2014 @ 6:17pm

Re: Yelp sucks
Sure is hard to feel any sympathy for Yelp.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
alternatives(), 18 Sep 2014 @ 2:22am

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
JustMe (profile), 18 Sep 2014 @ 4:40am

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2014 @ 6:07am

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2014 @ 6:14am

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2014 @ 6:31am

Re: Re: Re: I'll just leave this here
Ok, I give up then - what was the point of your post exactly?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2014 @ 7:00am

Terms of service
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
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2014 @ 8:11am

"...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"?
[ link to this | view in thread ]