Meta's platforms require users to be at least 13 years old, and Meta claims it does not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13 — though enforcement of this age restriction has been widely criticized.
Despite the stated 13-year minimum age, Meta has faced significant regulatory and legislative scrutiny for allegedly failing to prevent underage users from accessing its platforms and for exposing minors to harmful content and targeted advertising.
If your child under 13 has a Facebook or Instagram account, Meta is legally obligated to delete their data — but the platform has been criticized for inadequate age verification, meaning underage users' data may have been collected and processed in violation of COPPA.
How other platforms handle this
To facilitate our operations, we may transfer, process and store your personal info in jurisdictions other than where you live, including the U.S, Türkiye, Romania, Russia, Southeast Asia, and South America. Laws in these countries may differ from the laws applicable to your country of residence. We...
When we transfer personal information outside of Europe, we use a variety of legal mechanisms to safeguard the transfer, including Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.
We may share Information We Collect in connection with or during negotiations of a corporate transaction, such as a merger, acquisition in full or in part, reorganization, asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.
This clause could change without notice.
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REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Children's privacy is governed by COPPA (15 U.S.C. §6501 et seq.; 16 C.F.R. Part 312), enforced by the FTC, which requires verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. GDPR Art. 8 requires member state-defined age thresholds (typically 13-16) and parental consent below that threshold, enforced by EU/EEA DPAs. The UK Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code) imposes heightened data minimization and default privacy requirements for services likely to be accessed by under-18s, enforced by the ICO. The proposed US Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and COPPA 2.0 would raise the age threshold to 16 if enacted.
Full compliance analysis
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
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Your genetic data may be transferred to a new owner as a business asset. Here is what the Terms of Service actually say and what you can do right now.
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Watch MetaDespite the stated 13-year minimum age, Meta has faced significant regulatory and legislative scrutiny for allegedly failing to prevent underage users from accessing its platforms and for exposing minors to harmful content and targeted advertising.
If your child under 13 has a Facebook or Instagram account, Meta is legally obligated to delete their data — but the platform has been criticized for inadequate age verification, meaning underage users' data may have been collected and processed in violation of COPPA.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 5 platforms. See the full comparison.
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