Children's Privacy Policy | Common Sense Media

English | Spanish

Last updated: June 25, 2026

Former version

COMMON SENSE MEDIA'S CHILDREN'S PRIVACY POLICY

Common Sense Media, Inc. ("Common Sense," "we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting children's privacy. We support and comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), as well as other applicable privacy laws and frameworks, including the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") and the UK GDPR.

Our websites and online services (collectively, the "Sites") are generally not directed to children under the age of 13. However, as part of our mission, we offer certain educational programs, games, and experiences that may be used by children. We strive to provide these offerings in a safe and privacy-conscious manner by limiting the collection, use, and disclosure of children's personal information to what is necessary to provide the relevant service or experience as described in this notice.

Digital Citizenship Curriculum quizzes

Common Sense's Digital Citizenship Curriculum is an educational program that provides students with age-appropriate lessons, activities, and assessments designed to help them develop the knowledge and skills needed to navigate digital environments safely, responsibly, and effectively.

To provide and operate Digital Citizenship Curriculum quizzes and assessments, Common Sense collects only the limited information necessary to deliver the service, evaluate responses, and provide quiz results to participating educators. Common Sense does not create individual student profiles, and the information collected is not used to identify, track, or monitor children across services, websites, or over time.

The only student information retained by Common Sense for these purposes is (i) the student's numeric Google user account ID and (ii) the quiz results associated with that ID. This information is necessary to administer quizzes, authenticate users through Google Classroom, generate scores, make results available to authorized teachers, and maintain and analyze the functioning of the service. We do not collect student names or any other student details. Quiz results and related information are accessible to authenticated educators who have requested access to the relevant reports.

Any additional information collected in connection with the Digital Citizenship Curriculum is limited to system-level data necessary solely to support the internal operations of the service. Such internal operations include activities necessary to maintain and analyze the service's functioning, perform network communications, authenticate users, personalize content, protect the service's security and integrity, ensure legal and regulatory compliance, and fulfill user-initiated requests. This information is not used to contact specific individuals, build profiles about individual students, engage in behavioral advertising, or track users across websites, services, or over time.

Common Sense enters into written agreements with requesting schools and school districts that govern the collection, use, disclosure, retention, and protection of student information in connection with the Digital Citizenship Curriculum quizzes that comply with applicable federal and state student privacy laws, including FERPA and COPPA. Common Sense processes student information only for authorized educational purposes and does not use such information for commercial purposes unrelated to providing the Digital Citizenship Curriculum.

Common Sense uses administrative, technical, and contractual safeguards to ensure that the data collected is not used or disclosed to contact a specific individual, build a profile about a specific individual, or support behavioral advertising. Access to Digital Citizenship Curriculum data is restricted to authorized personnel and service providers with a legitimate operational need, and such personnel and service providers are subject to confidentiality and data use restrictions. Student identifiers are logically segregated from other datasets, are not shared with third parties, and are subject to internal policies that prohibit their use for purposes other than those described in this notice.

Games and Interactive Experiences

From time to time, Common Sense may make available games or other interactive experiences as part of its educational services. In operating these features, Common Sense may collect limited system-level information necessary to provide and maintain the functionality of the experience. This may include persistent identifiers (such as device identifiers, IP address, or cookie identifiers), technical and contextual information needed for authentication, security, fraud prevention, debugging, performance monitoring, and delivery of the gameplay experience.

To the extent these features are used by children, Common Sense relies on COPPA's internal operations exception for such collection. Such internal operations include activities necessary to maintain and analyze the service's functioning, perform network communications, authenticate users, personalize content, protect the service's security and integrity, ensure legal and regulatory compliance, and fulfill user-initiated requests. This information is collected solely to support the internal operations of the service and is not used for behavioral advertising, profiling, or cross-site tracking.

Notice Regarding Legacy Children's Reviews

Prior to November 2025, our media site allowed for children under thirteen accounts. Some children chose to write and post reviews on our Sites, such as reviews of movies, games, websites, TV, books, and apps. Although these accounts have been discontinued, anonymized versions of reviews submitted by children may remain available on our Sites. The only portion of a former child's profile that remains publicly viewable is the child's age.