You can make an app delete what it knows about your kid
New children's privacy rules took effect this year. Here's the paragraph they added to every kids' app — and the request to send when it's missing.
Every app your under-13 signs up for keeps something. As of April 22, 2026, the rules for what it can keep, and for how long, changed — and it’s worth knowing before this year’s back-to-school sign-up rush, because the consent screens you’re about to tap through are where a lot of it gets decided.
The updated federal children’s privacy rule (COPPA) added a few concrete things:
Sharing with third parties now needs its own yes. An app has to get separate, verifiable parental consent before handing a child’s data to outside companies. Consenting to the app is no longer consenting to everyone the app does business with.
Selling, ad-targeting, and AI training can’t hide in the fine print. These uses can no longer be waved through as “part of the service.” They need explicit permission — which means you can say no to them and still use the app.
“We keep it forever” is no longer allowed. The app must publish a written retention policy that names an actual deletion timeframe. Indefinite storage of your kid’s data is out.
Voice recordings get deleted right away. If an app records your child’s voice to do something — a voice search, a talking toy — it has to delete that recording as soon as it’s done with it.
Here’s how to use this. Open the privacy policy of an app your kid actually uses and look for the retention section — the paragraph that says what’s kept and for how long. If it’s there and names a timeframe, good. If it’s vague, or missing, that’s your cue.
You can send a deletion request. It doesn’t need to be elaborate:
“My child is under 13. Under COPPA, please delete the personal information you hold on their account, confirm when it’s done, and send me your data retention policy.”
Send it to the privacy or support address in the app’s policy. Keep the reply.
You won’t do this for every app, and you don’t need to. But the rule shifted the default in your favor this year: the burden is now on the app to say what it keeps and to let it go. Knowing that turns “I guess they have his data forever” into a two-line email — and a right you can actually use.