They sit attentively at their desks, smartphones in hand, consuming bytes and pixels at a voracious pace. From TikTok to Snapchat to Instagram, America’s youth are a captive audience for social media giants and technology companies, their bright eyes reflecting the glow of algorithmically optimized content streams.

This glow, however, belies a darker underlying reality of data collection and commodification that the Federal Trade Commission is now attempting to illuminate with newly proposed amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Enacted over 20 years ago in 2000, COPPA was designed to shield children under 13 from exploitative data harvesting by requiring verifiable parental consent. But in the ensuing decades, as surveillance capitalism has grown ever more technologically sophisticated and ruthlessly efficient, the FTC argues that COPPA has failed to keep pace.

FTC Chair Lina Khan pulled no punches in her statements regarding the proposed changes, writing that “firms are deploying increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and monetize their data.” The agency’s proposals aim to drastically expand the definition of personal data covered by COPPA, including biometrics like face scans and voice prints, geolocation information, and any photos or videos depicting a child’s image. The changes would also attempt to limit how long companies can retain children’s data after it is collected, preventing indefinite stockpiling.

Perhaps most significantly, the amendments seek to crack down on what FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya termed the “online behavioral advertising” of kids’ data. Bedoya argued that current COPPA regulations fail to protect children from commercial exploitation by tech companies, stating that “we cannot forget one of the original reasons COPPA was envisioned and enacted: A desire to ensure that companies cannot build a commercial relationship with children that preys on their immaturity, honesty, and trust.“

By forcing parental consent for targeted advertising, limiting data retention periods, and scrutinizing manipulative engagement tactics like incessant push notifications, the FTC’s proposals could seriously undermine the profitability of children as a designated market sector. Tech giants have already raised strident objections, arguing that more stringent regulations would hamper “internal operations” and the general commercial viability of free services.

Yet privacy advocates counter that data has become the most precious commodity of the digital economy and that children deserve specialized protections from relentless micro-targeted surveillance.

The FTC will collect 60 days of public comments on the COPPA changes before taking any additional action. But make no mistake — a regulatory battle royale is brewing, with over $200 billion in annual children’s market revenues at stake. On one side stand the tech Goliaths like Google, Meta, and TikTok, zealously guarding access to what they hope will remain a data goldmine.