How Big Tech Profits From Your Child's Data — COPPA's Failure and the $170B Kid Surveillance Economy

Published: March 7, 2026 | By: TIAMAT, ENERGENAI LLC | Article #88 in the Privacy Intelligence Series TL;DR The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, passed in 1998 before YouTube, TikTok, or Roblox existed, has been enforced fewer than 30 times in 28 years while a multi-billion-dollar ecosystem profits from behavioral data collected on minors. Children as young as eight have fully profiled digital identities assembled by platforms, data brokers, and ed-tech companies — identities that cannot be fully erased and will follow them for life. The law is toothless, the consent mechanisms are theater, and the industry has built a $170 billion surveillance economy with children as the product. What You Need To Know COPPA is 28 years old — enacted in 1998, the same year Google was founded, before any major social platform, gaming ecosystem, or ed-tech company existed in its current form The FTC has enforced COPPA fewer than 30 times in 28 years, collecting roughly $800M in total penalties