The agreement prohibits use of Substack by individuals under 16 and states that Substack does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 16. The agreement commits to deleting any such data if discovered.
This analysis describes what Substack's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision establishes a minimum age of 16 for platform use, which is above the COPPA threshold of 13, and commits Substack to deleting data collected from under-16 users upon discovery. The provision does not describe specific technical age verification mechanisms, which may be relevant to assessing COPPA compliance in practice.
Provision name changed from 'COPPA Under-16 Prohibition' to 'COPPA Age Restriction and Under-16 Prohibition' and severity downgraded from medium to low.
View full change record →This provision establishes that users under 16 are prohibited from registering for or using Substack, and that the platform will delete personally identifiable information collected from such users upon discovery. The agreement does not describe the age verification mechanism used to enforce this restriction.
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"The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") requires that online service providers obtain parental consent before they knowingly collect personally identifiable information online from children. We do not knowingly collect or solicit personally identifiable information from children under 16; if you are a child under 16, please do not attempt to register for Substack or send any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn we have collected personal information from a child under 16, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.Excerpt from Substack's Terms of Use
1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: COPPA, enforced by the FTC, requires verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.
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This provision establishes a minimum age of 16 for platform use, which is above the COPPA threshold of 13, and commits Substack to deleting data collected from under-16 users upon discovery. The provision does not describe specific technical age verification mechanisms, which may be relevant to assessing COPPA compliance in practice.
This provision establishes that users under 16 are prohibited from registering for or using Substack, and that the platform will delete personally identifiable information collected from such users upon discovery. The agreement does not describe the age verification mechanism used to enforce this restriction.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 290 platforms. See the full comparison.
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