Educational app developers are being frustrated by recent changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), according to The Washington Post.

The uncertainty is around the definition of “personally identifiable” information. The regulation prohibits children under 13 to share full names, home or email addressed.

However, developers are now unsure about screen names and first names as the Federal Trade Commission recently proposed “persistent identifiers”, whether tied to personal information or not, should require parental consent.

The FTC has made an exception for data for internal use, allowing data to be used by a developer if it is to improve an app, such as the progress of a child through an educational app. This information could not be passed to an advertiser.

Developer Dan Russell-Pinson told The Washington Post that he’s hesitant to collect analytics and innovate with apps due to the potential rules changes within COPPA.

Technapex said complying with the proposed changes could also be expensive for educational app developers with international advocacy organisation for developers ACT saying legal and other costs could exceed US$9,000 per app.

The FTC revised the COPPA regulations related to mobile apps in September 2011 after successfully prosecuting developer W3 Innovations for violating COPPA by illegally collecting and disclosing personal information from “tens of thousands” of children under 13.