What is KWS?
Kids Web Services (KWS) is a parent verification platform that makes it easy for you to create safe and compliant digital experiences for young audiences.
KWS' free Parent Verification (PV) service enables you to verify the identity of the person designated as the parent of a child using your app. You collect the parent's email address within your product interface and pass it to KWS. KWS then presents the parent with a web-based interface to perform the verification.
Why do you need to verify the identity of parents?
Developers of digital services such as apps and games may need to verify the identity of parents who give consent for their children to use certain features of those services in order to comply with digital privacy laws such as COPPA and GDPR-K.
Disclaimer: Any information presented here is for informational purposes and is not legal advice. Consult your own legal counsel for guidance relating to your specific use case.
COPPA and GDPR-K overview
The USA's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and certain provisions of the EU's (also adopted by other members of EEA) and UK's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR-K) were created to protect children’s privacy online. Both laws have an extraterritorial scope, which means they may be enforceable against companies based anywhere in the world that have users in the USA, EEA or UK respectively.
What are the requirements of COPPA?
COPPA is a US federal law enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that regulates the online collection and use of personal information from children under the age of 13. It imposes certain requirements on online operators who direct their websites, apps, or online services to children under the age of 13, or who have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from a child under 13, and requires those operators to obtain verifiable consent from the children's parents before collecting, using, or disclosing children's personal information (subject to certain limited exceptions). To learn more about COPPA, consult the FTC's COPPA FAQs page. At the date of publication of this documentation, COPPA is being reviewed by the FTC to determine if the rule should be updated to reflect changes in the industry.
What are the requirements of GDPR-K?
The GDPR is an EEA and UK regulation on data protection and privacy. It is administered by the UK's/each EEA member state's data protection authority. GDPR-K refers to the special protections within the GDPR for children's data. Under GDPR-K, when online operators are relying on consent as the basis for processing a child's data, they must obtain this consent from a parent and make reasonable efforts to verify the identity of that parent (subject to certain limited exceptions). The GDPR sets the age of digital consent at 16, but individual member states may lower this as far as 13. The UK has lowered the age of consent to 13. To learn more about GDPR-K as it applies in the UK, consult the ICO's website.
KWS terms and conditions
- Terms of Use - These terms cover the use of the KWS Developer Portal. When you create a KWS account and log into the Developer Portal for the first time, you must accept these terms.
- KWS General Terms and KWS Service Specific Terms - These are the terms relating to the use of the KWS services. If you are an admin user of KWS, and you choose (within the KWS Developer Portal) to use any KWS service, you must accept these terms.