Thirteen. Below that age, in the United States, the rules that govern what a brand may collect and say around a child change in kind, not in degree. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule applies to online services directed to children under 13 that collect personal information from them, and the Federal Trade Commission's own FAQ on endorsements states that a disclosure that works with adults might not work with younger individuals, and that research suggests disclosures will not work for younger children. A brand that sells strollers, snacks, apps or clothing for children is therefore briefing creators into a market where the usual "#ad" may not do its work and where the child on screen is a person with rights the brand does not hold.

The craft of this category, parents listening to parents, the consent that comes first, the claims to frame carefully, is in the guide to UGC for baby and kids brands. This guide is about the American layer: what COPPA covers and what it does not, why the FTC treats disclosures to children as a separate problem, what the health-claim rules do to a children's product, and how a brand writes a brief that a parent creator can follow.

COPPA: data, not content, and under 13

What the Rule covers

The FTC's COPPA FAQ describes the Rule's scope: operators of commercial websites and online services, including mobile apps and connected devices such as smart toys, that are directed to children under 13 and that collect, use or disclose personal information from children, or on whose behalf that information is collected, for example by an ad network serving targeted advertising. It also covers general-audience services with actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children under 13. The list of what counts as personal information is long and concrete: name, physical address, online contact information, a screen name that works as contact information, telephone number, Social Security number, a persistent identifier that can recognize a user over time, and, on the same list, a photograph, video or audio file containing a child's image or voice, and geolocation information.

What it means for a creator campaign

COPPA is a data rule, not a content rule, and a brand should read it that way. A creator video about a children's product, posted by a parent to an adult audience, is not itself a COPPA event. The FAQ says so in its own words: COPPA does not apply to information about children collected online from parents or other adults. What the Rule reaches is the service around the video: a brand's app directed to children that collects data, a brand's site with a child-directed section, a campaign that drives children under 13 to sign up, enter a contest or upload their own video. The FAQ's discussion of child-directed content and ad networks is the part a brand's growth team should read before it runs creator video as an ad against a young audience, because the actual-knowledge standard can be met, in the FTC's words, where a child-directed content provider communicates the nature of its content or where a representative of the ad network recognizes it. The practical rule for a brand: a creator video is for parents; anything in the campaign that asks a child to do something online is a COPPA question for counsel before it launches.

Disclosures a child does not read

The FTC's endorsement FAQ answers the question directly. Asked whether the disclosures it recommends will work for children and teens, it says no: children and teens can react differently from adults, a disclosure that works with adults might not work with younger individuals, research suggests that disclosures will not work for younger children, and advertisers and endorsers should be particularly careful in their use of endorsements directed to this audience. The objection brands raise is that their creators are parents posting to parents, and it is often right; the consequence for a brand in this category is a distinction in the brief, made deliverable by deliverable rather than assumed for the whole campaign. Content aimed at parents carries the ordinary disclosure, clear and with the post, as the FTC's influencer guidance describes. Content that will be seen by children, a kid-facing channel, a toy demonstration a child will watch, an ad placed against children's content, should not be treated as covered by a hashtag, and the honest position is that the brand should not rely on a disclosure to do work the FTC says may not work with that audience. The health products guidance adds that when an endorsement targets a specific audience, such as children, the effectiveness of the disclosure is judged from the perspective of members of that group.

Four cases cover most campaigns. A parent creator reviewing a stroller on their own account is content for parents, and the ordinary material-connection disclosure, clear and with the post, does its work. A toy demonstration on a channel children watch is content for children, where the FTC says disclosures may not work, so the brand should not treat a label as sufficient. A brand ad cut from creator footage and placed against family content is mixed: the disclosure serves the adults, whereas any data the placement collects from children is a COPPA question. And a child on screen in a paid video is content for parents in which a child's image is used commercially, which adds the consent and rights questions below to the disclosure.

The child on screen

The release is a second document

A brand paying for a video in which a child appears is using a minor's image commercially, and who may consent to that, and how, is a question of state law this guide does not state. The practice that does not depend on the answer is a written release from the parent, specific about the uses the brand intends and separate from the creator's own license, because the creator's usage rights and the child's image are two different things. The guide to creator contracts and usage rights describes the license; the child's release is a second document. The cautious practice is to keep the child's face out of paid advertising entirely, filming hands, backs of heads and the product in use, and to reserve identifiable children for the creator's own organic content, where the parent decides.

The state layer

Several states have passed laws about children who appear in monetized online content, with obligations on the parent or the account; this guide does not state them, and a brand that plans to feature children in paid content should ask its counsel which state's law applies to the family it is hiring.

Health claims, with a child's product

Children's products sit closer to health claims than most categories, and the rules are the same as for any other product: the Food and Drug Administration's categories for foods and supplements apply to a children's snack or vitamin exactly as the guides to UGC for food brands and UGC for supplement brands in the United States describe, and the FTC's health products guidance requires competent and reliable scientific evidence for claims about the health benefits of any of them. What changes is the vocabulary a parent creator reaches for: "helps them sleep", "keeps them from getting sick", "good for their development", "safe". Every one of those is a claim the brand would have to substantiate, and for a food or a supplement "safe" is a safety claim the FTC's health products guidance covers exactly as it covers benefit claims; for a stroller or a toy it is still a claim the brand has to be able to prove, under product-safety rules this guide does not state. The guidance's own example of an implied claim is a children's drink whose ad shows a straw forming a barrier against another child's sneeze, which it reads as implying that the product helps protect children from catching colds. The brief should give the parent creator the sentences the brand can stand behind and name the ones it cannot.

The brief for a parent creator

  1. State the audience of each deliverable in the brief, parents or children, because the disclosure and the placement rules differ.
  2. Decide before the shoot whether any child will be identifiable, and if so, obtain a written release from the parent that names the uses, separate from the creator's license.
  3. List the health and safety words that are off limits and supply the substantiated ones, with "safe" treated as a claim rather than an adjective.
  4. Keep every child-facing interaction in the campaign, sign-ups, contests, uploads, out of the creator brief and in front of counsel, because that is where COPPA lives.
  5. Put the disclosure wording in the brief for the parent-facing content only; the child-facing content has no disclosure that the FTC says will work.

Sources

Checked on 20 September 2026. This guide is not legal advice. Where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source prevails.