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The recent news of a large-scale online tracking campaign involving Facebook users, which gave way to systematic misuse of the collected user-related data, has left millions of people deeply concerned about the state of their online privacy as well as the state of the overall information security in the cyber world. While most to-date revelations pertaining to user tracking are related to websites and social media generally intended for adult online users, relatively little is known about the prevalence of online tracking in websites geared towards children and teens. In this paper, we first provide a brief overview of two laws that seek to protect the privacy of kids and teens online-the US Children's Online Privacy Act (COPPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Subsequently, we present the results of our study which has looked for potential signs of user tracking in twenty select children-oriented websites in case of a user located in the USA (where COPPA is applicable) as well as a user located in the EU (where GDPR is applicable). The key findings of this study are alarming as they point to overwhelming evidence of widespread and highly covert user tracking in a range of different children-oriented websites. The majority of the discovered tracking is in direct conflict with both COPPA and GDPR, since it is performed without parental consent and by third-party advertising and tracking companies. The results also imply that, relative to their US counterparts, the children residing in the EU may be somewhat less subjected (but are still significantly exposed) to tracking by third-party companies.

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Profiling activities used to personalise user content can place online corporations in a position of significant influence over user behaviour. The ability to deliver different search engine results, news feeds, discriminatory prices, and so forth, can be exploited to grant unequal access to different kinds of content. This is likely to intensify with the Internet of Things (IoT), which will surround individuals with sensors capable of 24/7 full tracking. This content-shaping power jeopardises the neutral accessibility that a democratic internet should ensure. Indeed, both neutrality and accessibility should refer not only to the service connection but also to the content it delivers. This study examines this personalisation and filtering power in light of Privacy and Data Protection regulations to explore how privacy principles can be used to enhance IoT accessibility. It elaborates a comparative analysis of legislative sources related to public goods and interests, data flows and contract law relationships, into a holistic narrative reasoning. The discussion addresses the monopolistic economic position of platforms, their connected revenue models and the power to control and influence information. Fake news plays a crucial role in this and is addressed consequently. Therefore, the study analyses how these factors together could form profiling ‘multi-monopolies’ in connection with a non-neutral Internet of Things. Furthermore, techniques of influence have more grip where there is a lack of awareness and knowledge, and a new model of digital “divide et impera” seems to enhance these phenomena. Besides, social score systems and discriminatory pricing can be powerful tools in this sense. We discuss the gap between regulatory approaches and real-world situations, offering common legal tools and Privacy by Design (PbD) as potential solutions for neutral accessibility. We highlight how the current regulatory framework requires more harmonisation to guarantee effective user protections, especially in an IoT ecosystem.

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