The commission will look at whether the COPPA, enacted in 2000, effectively addresses new technologies, like smart televisions, and services like video games that aren’t directly marketed toward children under 13, but still have a large audience of them, like Fortnite and Snapchat. The FTC will hold a public workshop on October 7 to review whether the act should be updated. (Washington Post, TechCrunch)

Talking point: If the FTC does decide to update the act, it could take years: for its last amendment, it initiated a review in 2010; it went into effect in 2013. That’s a main concern for advocacy groups, whose complaints have played a part in launching these reviews in the first place. For example, the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC)’s complaints helped spark an ongoing FTC investigation into YouTube; the CCFC’s executive director, Josh Grolin, said the lack of enforcement was the problem, not the rule itself. That “could be solved immediately without a lengthy comment period and proceeding,” he said. The FTC did not mention whether it would aim to shorten the process this time around.