How should consent be collected for minors?

Collecting consent from minors requires parental or guardian verification under laws designed to protect children. In the US, COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) prohibits collecting personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. This includes email addresses for marketing purposes. The verification must be meaningful-not just a checkbox claiming parental permission.

Under GDPR, member states set their own age thresholds (ranging from 13-16) below which parental consent is required. Organizations targeting children must implement age gates and parental consent mechanisms. The \"GDPR-K\" considerations add significant compliance complexity for any organization intentionally marketing to minors.

Practical approaches include age verification at signup (asking date of birth and blocking underage users), parental consent flows (collecting parent email, sending verification), and age-appropriate content segregation (ensuring minor-targeted content meets different standards). Many organizations simply avoid targeting minors given the compliance burden. Marketing to children requires treating consent as a parental matter with verification-anything less creates serious legal exposure and ethical concerns.